A Simple Measure of Fertility Control: Illustrations from the Soviet Union

This paper describes a simple measure of fertility control: the proportion of all births from the age-specific fertility schedule that occur to women by age 35. This proportion generally increases over time in a given population, even when there are large fluctuations in the total fertility rate. It allows detection of increased fertility control in populations sometimes before any substantial decline in the total fertility rate has occurred. The paper examines properties of the measure using data from the Soviet Union as well as several developed and developing countries.

Unlike most alternative measures of fertility control, this one does not require information on the marital status of the population or on marital fertility rates. Because of increasing levels of non-marital fertility in several developed countries, measures of fertility control that are based solely on marital fertility are less appropriate than in the past. Differences among populations in the meaning of marriage and in the relation between marriage and childbearing have long been a problem for researchers who wish to use measures of fertility control that are based on marital fertility data.