Fertility Trend in Ghana
Reproductive Health
20
Issue: 2
(10 - 2005)
The study traces the likely route of the movement of fertility through the demographic transition. The
information is critical for construction of population projections as well as for monitoring and evaluating
action programmes The original P/F ratio method and modified versions, one through the intermediary of
relational Gompertz model , for analysing birth history data, are employed in assessing data quality as well
as in determining fertility levels and trends. The derived estimates suggest that the level of fertility in Ghana
fell from about seven children per woman in the 1960s and 1970s to 4.6 children per woman by the turn of
the 20th century. The pace of the decline, slowed down considerably between the late1990s and the
beginning of this century when the total fertility rate dropped from 4.8 to 4.6 The changing youth
population, substantial increase in the number of females aged 15-49 years, increasing aging population
and the huge discrepancy between contraceptive use and the level of fertility are some of the crucial issues
that call for policy options and research-based evidence for designing context specific development strategies
and action programmes
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