MEASURES OF FERTILITY

PRELIMINARIES

• Unless otherwise specified, a ‘birth’ means a ‘live birth’.

• Most measures refer to a specified geographic area and a

specified period which is generally one year.

• In most of the formulas given later, the term area is not

mentioned for the sake of simplicity but is implied.

• For many rates, the multiplier 1000 is used for

convenience; thus these rates are per thousand.
 CRUDE BIRTH RATE
Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is the most commonly used measure
and is defined as:

Number of births in a given area in one year

CBR = --------------------------------------------------------- x 1000

Mid-year population in the area

This is the number of births per 1000 population per year.

The mid-year population is used as it approximates the number of

person years during the period of one year.
 GENERAL FERTILITY RATE
But not all the population is exposed to the risk of giving a
birth.
Hence, a refined measure, General Fertility Rate (GFR), is
used. This is given by

Number of births in one year

GFR = ---------------------------------------------------------- x 1000
Number of women in reproductive ages at mid-year

the ages 15-49 or 15-44 are considered as reproductive ages.

 AGE SPECIFIC FERTILITY RATE
Further, since fertility varies considerably over age, the rate
is computed for specified age (or age group) as Age Specific
Fertility Rate (ASFR) given by

No. of births in one year to women in a given age group

ASFR = -------------------------------------------------------- x 1000
No. of women in the age group at mid-year

The conventional five-year age groups are: 15-19, 20-24, ….45-

49; however, one can obtain the rates for single year age
groups as well.

The ASFR for the age group ‘i’ is denoted as ASFR i .

 TOTAL FERTILITY RATE
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is most widely accepted as a
summary measure of fertility and is computed as:
TFR = 5 *∑ ASFR i /1000
if ASFR are for five-year age groups, and

TFR = ∑ ASFR i /1000

if ASFR are for single-year age groups.

The TFR is the number of births a woman would have on

average in lifetime if she survives through reproductive
period following the given schedule of fertility rates.
In case of low mortality, a TFR of 2.1 roughly corresponds to
replacement level fertility.
GROSS REPRODUCTION RATE
Gross Reproduction Rate (GRR) is the number of daughters
a woman would have on average in lifetime if she survives
through childbearing period following a given fertility
schedule and is given by

GRR = 5 *∑ ASFRf i /1000

where ASFRf i is the ASFR computed based on female births
only; or

GRR = TFR *100/(100+SRB)

where SRB is the sex ratio at birth, given as the number of
male births per 100 female births.
 NET REPRODUCTION RATE
Net Reproduction Rate (NRR) is the number of daughters a
woman would have on average in lifetime if she passes
through reproductive life subject to given schedules of
mortality and fertility. This is given by
∑ ASFRf i * (5 L x)
NRR = ---------------------------------
1000 * 100000
where ASFR fi refers to ASFR computed based on female
births only and 5 L x is the term for number of person years
between ages x and x + 5 (corresponding to age group i) from
the female life table, or
∑ ASFR i * (5 L x)
NRR = ------------------------------ * [100/(100+SRB)].
1000*100000
The NRR is the most commonly used measure of
replacement.

Note that TFR and GRR do not take into account mortality
of woman and assume survival at least till the end of the
childbearing period. The net reproduction rate, on the other
hand, incorporates both fertility and mortality and hence is
called ‘net’ (of woman’s mortality).

If NRR > 1, the population grows in the long run,

if NRR < 1, the population declines in the long run , and

if NRR =1, it remains stationary in the long run.

An NRR of 1 is equivalent to replacement level.

 MARITAL FERTILITY
• In many populations including India, fertility occurs
mostly within marriage and hence marital fertility rates
are computed.

• General Marital Fertility Rate (GMFR) and Age Specific

Marital Fertility Rates (ASMFR) are computed like GFR
and ASFR but with the number of married women in the
denominator and births to them in the numerator.

• Similarly, Total Marital Fertility Rate (TMFR) is

computed from ASMFR exactly as the TFR is obtained
from ASFR.
 AN ILLUSTRATION

Age group No. of No. of births ASFR

women
15-19 46286 1283 27.7
20-24 43443 6417 147.7
25-29 41865 5734 137.0
30-34 36912 3160 85.6
35-39 34535 1631 47.2
40-44 25860 797 30.8
45-49 22541 613 27.2
Total 251442 19635 503.2
Given that,
Total population = 1028610
No. of women 15-49 = 251442
No. of married women 15-49 = 192636
No of births in one year = 19635.
We can compute,
CBR = (19635/1028610 )*1000 = 19.1
GFR = (19635/251442) * 1000 = 78.1
GMFR = (19635/192636) * 1000 = 101.9
ASFR (given in the table)
TFR = 5 *(27.7+147.7+137.0+85.6+47.2+30.8+27.2)/1000
= 5 * (503.2)/1000 = 2.52
GRR = 2.52 *100/(100+105) = 1.23 if SRB is 105.
 Computation of NRR
Age group ASFR 5 Lx ASFR * 5Lx
15-19 27.7 436907 12110610
20-24 147.7 431990 63809586
25-29 137.0 426491 58413935
30-34 85.6 420801 36024360
35-39 47.2 414818 19590797
40-44 30.8 408308 12583970
45-49 27.2 400022 10878554
Total 503.2 213411811
 NRR = {213411811 * /(1000*100000)}* [100/(100+ SRB)]
= 2.13 *[100/205] assuming SRB of 105
= 1.04.

The 5Lx term is from the female life table.

Note that the NRR of 1.04 is just above the replacement level.