Social and Economic Differentials in Fertility

Abstract

In the years since World War II demography has become a much more developed science than previously. Not only has there been accumulated a wealth of information about the determinants and consequences of population changes and about the character of these changes in populations at different stages of economic development, but demographers have become much better equipped to extract meaning from this information. As a result some early generalizations have been shown to be true not at all times but only at certain times in historical development, and, in any case, to be over-simplifications. This is especially true of the interrelationship of poverty and large families. While there undoubtedly was a time when large families helped the poor to become poorer and when the poor could command few other interests than procreation, it is no longer so in Britain; nor does it apply to any other society in an advanced state of economic development. It need not necessarily be true of a developing country, since it is at least technically possible with modern contraceptive measures to break the vicious circle of high fertility and a low level of living.