Natality refers to the number of births during a given period in the population. There are many factors that interact in complex ways, influencing the birth rates of a population. Developed countries have a lower birth rate than underdeveloped countries . A parent’s number of children strongly correlates with the number of children that each person in the next generation will eventually have. Factors generally associated with increased fertility include religiosity intention to have children, and maternal support. Factors generally associated with decreased fertility include wealth, education, female labor participation, urban residence, intelligence, increased female age, women’s rights, access to family planning services and (to a lesser degree) increased male age. Many of these factors however are not universal, and differ by region and social class. For instance, at a global level, religion is correlated with increased fertility, but in the West less so: Scandinavian countries and France are among the least religious in the EU, but have the highest TFR, while the opposite is true about Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland and Spain.
Reproductive health can also affect the birth rate, as untreated infections can lead to fertility problems, as can be seen in the “infertility belt” – a region that stretches across central Africa from the United Republic of Tanzania in the east to Gabon in the west, and which has a lower fertility than other African regions.
Child custody laws, affecting fathers’ parental rights over their children from birth until child custody ends at age 18, may have an effect on the birth rate. U.S. states strict in enforcing child support have up to 20 percent fewer unmarried births than states that are lax about getting unmarried fathers to pay, the researchers found. Moreover, according to the results, if all 50 states in the United States had done at least as well in their enforcement efforts as the state ranked fifth from the top, that would have led to a 20 percent reduction in out-of-wedlock births.
- Early and Universal Marriage
- Preference for Male Child
- Joint Family System
- Climatic Factor
- Poverty
- Inadequate Supply of Family Welfare Services
- Inadequate Recreational Facilities
- Effect of Religion
- Agricultural Occupation