HONG KONG: The Continuing Fertility Decline, 1967

Abstract

In 1967 fertility rates in Hong Kong continued the decline previously noted for 1966. For the period 1965-1967 the crude birth rate of Hong Kong fell by 15% the total fertility rate fell by 14% and the birth rate standardized for age fell by 13%. The fertility declines were greatest at the youngest ages. It is believed that to a significant degree the activity of the Hong Kong Family Planning Association was responsible for the decline. The 1967 decline while marked was much less than that for 1966 and follows on a relative decline in the number of new clients being served by the Association. Almost all of the 15% decline in the birth rate in 1966 and 1967 can be attributed to a genuine decline in the fertility of married women. The decline which occurred in the 1961-1965 period was attributed to changes in age and marital status distributions. The changes in the younger age groups were consistent with the fact that the Hong Kong Family Planning Association was especially successful in reaching younger women with their IUD program up to April 1967 the last date when the program might have affected the birth rates under study. In the 2 years between 1965 and 1967 alone the number of women aged 15-29 increased by 43000. This was a 12% increase while the total population grew by less than 4%. There will be a large increase in the number of women in the childbearing years in the next decade. Simply to keep the 1976 crude birth rate at the 1967 level would require a 14% decline in age-specific rates to compensate for changes expected in age distributions. There has been a tendency for a smaller proportion of women 15-24 to be married. According to surveys Hong Kongs married women do not want large families but many of these women are not practicing contraception. 34% of the married women aged 15-45 who said they did not want more children were not practicing contraception.