Socio-Economic Determinants of Fertility in Some Countries of Asia

Most of the developing countries in Asia have experienced declines in their fertility levels over the last two decades. While some small countries (Islands) of Asia viz., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and also Sri Lanka started showing symptoms of fertility decline in the early fifties, most of the bigger countries in Asia which were comparatively less developed-experienced declines in their fertility only after the introduction of their national family planning programmes. However, the declines in birth rates of these countries remained uneven depending on the levels of their socio-economic development at the time of the implementation of the programme and subsequently.