Jamaica’s total fertility rate (TFR) has declined significantly from 4.5 births per female between 1973 and 1975 to 1.9 in 2021, contributing to a decrease in the country’s population estimate, The Jamaica Gleaner reported on Sunday, Feb. 11.
This is one of the findings of the Reproductive Health Survey Jamaica (RHS) 2021, which was officially disseminated to the public by the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Friday.
“Age specific fertility rates fell in all age groups except 25-29 years and probably reflects a delayed start to childbearing into their late 20s, while women completed their education,” said Professor Affette McCaw-Binns, a sexual and reproductive health and epidemiology expert who was presenting the findings.
The TFR is the average number of children that is expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime.
A fertility rate of 1.9 is below the replacement level of 2.1, which is the average number of children that a woman would need to produce to keep the population constant, Professor McCaw-Binns explained.
She noted that in 1983 when the National Population Policy was developed, it included the goal of achieving replacement level fertility by providing high quality family planning services.
RHS 2021 was a household survey of 3, 224 females and 1,784 males of reproductive age, 15 to 49 years, with data collected between August 2021 and April 2022.
Forty-six percent of the respondents were resident in rural areas, 32% were in urban centers outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) and 22% were domiciled within the KMR.
Sixty-one percent of participants were in a union (married, common-law or visiting relationship) while 39% were not.
some fonts says fertility rate in jamaica is 1.3