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FERTILITY RATES: CANADA IN DECLINE BUT U.S. ON THE RISE

OTTAWA, July 4, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The last two decades have seen Canadian fertility drop to a record low of 1.52 children per woman in 1999, compared to an American rate of 2.08.

In "Trends in Canadian and American fertility 1980 to 1999" Statistics Canada laments that, "For almost a century, Canada's population growth rate had been higher than that of the United States," but that "Canada's growth is now only about three-quarters of the growth south of the border." Stats Can offers several theories to explain the growing difference:

- Marriage occurs earlier and more often in the United States, and as a result, women tend to bear children earlier. Canadians are more likely to put off starting a family;

- The higher fertility of American minorities. Even the fertility rate of white non-hispanic women, the group with the lowest U.S. fertility rate, at 1.85 children per woman, is well above the Canadian average;

- Canadian women are more aggressive and efficient with contraception than American women. For example, of Canadian women aged 15 to 19 "who use contraceptives, 86% use a pharmaceutical method, primarily the pill," but in the U.S. only 58% use the pill;

- Canada's public health care system provides universal free access to contraception and abortion; in the U.S. such "services" are not necessarily in the hands of government, and do not manipulate or intrude as much on people's private lives (Statistics Canada did not use these exact words);

"Because of low birth rates," writes Stats Can, "immigration has already become the main contributor to population growth in Canada, a trend expected to continue... If fertility remains at the current level, deaths are expected to exceed births in Canada in about 20 to 25 years."

To read the Statistics Canada report in The Daily see:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/020703/d020703a.htm

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