English second edition 2013

639

Chapter 6 • Fertility

A summary index of period fertility1, i.e., the fertility of a particular year or period, computed by the summation of the series of age-specific fertility rates constituting the fertility schedule2 and representing a synthetic measure of fertility3, is the total fertility rate4 or total fertility4. Other summary period indices can be obtained, such as the total marital fertility rate5, the summation of marriage duration-specific fertility rates, and the order-specific total fertility rate6, the summation of age-specific fertility rates order by order. The ratio of births to marriages7 is computed by relating the number of births of a given year, either to the marriages of the year, or to a weighted average of the marriages of the current and of the preceding years.

Footnotes

2 Also, fertility distribution or fertility function.

4 This is not a rate in the meaning of (133-4). Total fertility for a given year represents the number of children that would be bom per 1,000 women if they experienced no mortality and were subject to the age-specific fertility rates observed for that year. The period gross reproduction rate (see 711-4) which is derived by multiplying the total fertility rate by the proportion of female births, has often been used in the past, but the total fertility rate is preferred at present as the summary index of period fertility.

5 Or total marital fertility. The term is also used to describe the sum of the age-specific marital fertility rates above age 20.

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