“enormous implications”
UNITED NATIONS, March 22, 2002 (LSN.ca) - In a press release from the United Nations Population Division, the organization warns it “foresees future fertility in developing countries falling below the two-child family norm,” a finding it says, “having enormous implications.”
Last week at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Completing the Fertility Transition, 11-14 March 2002, some 40 population experts from around the world endorsed the proposal for fertility projections to accommodate levels below the replacement floor. “There no longer seem to be any barriers to most countries reaching replacement level and subsequently falling below that level,” said John Caldwell, an Australian National University professor.
The UN release reports: “Over the past few decades, fertility rates in developing countries have fallen dramatically. Since 1965, for example, fertility in less developed regions has declined from six to slightly under three births per woman. And by the middle of the twenty-first century, fertility in many developing countries is likely to fall below the 2.1 children per woman required for long-term population replacement.”
For more on the United Nations Meeting see: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/completingfertility/completingfertility.htm