THAILAND: Fertility and Family Planning among Rural and Urban Women

Abstract

The Longitudinal Study of Social Economic and Demographic Change conducted by the Institute of Population Studies Chulalongkorn University is the first study to collect data on fertility and family planning as well as a wide variety of other topics from essentially national rural and urban samples in Thailand. This report examines some of the information gathered on fertility desire for additional children and knowledge attitude and practice of family planning from the 1969 rural and 1970 urban rounds of the survey. The data suggest that in Thailand as in many other developing countries the greatest need for family planning services exists in rural areas where the majority of the population live. Fertility is higher and contraceptive knowledge and practice are significantly lower in rural than in urban areas yet favorable attitudes toward family planning are as common as in provincial towns and the Bangkok-Thonburi metropolis. John Knodel is resident advisor of the Population Council at the Institute of Population Studies Chulalongkorn University Thailand; Pichit Pitaktepsombati is lecturer in the Faculty of Political Science and faculty research associate at the Institute of Population Studies Chulalongkorn University. Visid Prachuabmoh Sidney Goldstein Ralph Thomlinson and Lincoln Polissar made useful comments and suggestions during the preparation of this report; their help is gratefully acknowledged. Discussions of selected tables from this report at special seminars held at the Office of Population Research Princeton University the Population Council and the East-West Population Institute were also helpful in the reports preparation. (excerpt)