Fertility Differentials in the Sudan.

The article highlights fertility differentials in Sudan, taking into account a survey. It was found during the 1955-56 sample census that there were three main types of fertility differentials in Sudan. Three surveys were carried out in the east of Sudan, where the Kawahia tribe was selected as the population to be studied. Originally the Kawahia were partly nomadic and partly rain cultivators. Some of them gradually settled and depended mainly on rains for cultivation. To examine the effects of nomadism and settlement on fertility the fertility experience women who belong to the same tribe, but have different modes of life, were compared. Information on fertility was derived from more than one source and at several stages of completing the schedule. The crude birth rate is, however, an inadequate measure of fertility because it depends on the proportion of women of childbearing age in the population, as well as on the level of their fertility. The general fertility rate is, affected by differences in age composition within the group of women of childbearing age. Under conditions of stable fertility and no significant association between fertility and mortality of mothers, the total fertility rate tended to approximate to the average size of completed families.