Recent Fertility Decline in Ceylon.

The recent declines in fertility in Asia have taken place in countries with a Mongoloid type of population. The recent fertility decline in Ceylon is interesting in view of the completely different ethnicity of its population. During the period 1963-69 the crude birth rate fell from 34.1 to 30.4 by II%. The analysis indicates that the age structure in 1969 tended to increase the crude birth rate while the marital structure tended to reduce it. Jointly they tended to reduce the birth rate. Besides this marital fertility of women (30-40) declined by 20% during this period while that of women (15-29) did not undergo any appreciable change. In view of the slow pace at which the National Family Planning Programme is proceeding it may be safer to assume that the expectation set in the medium projections may be realised by 7978. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]