Determinants of Marital Fertility in Pakistan: An Application of the “Synthesis Framework”

The fertility phase of the demographic transition has increasingly been viewed as a movement from high to low levels of fertility, and as a shift from natural fertility to deliberately controlled fertility. In an attempt to gain more insight into this process, the present study, in the context of Pakistan, is based on intensive National Population, Labour Force, and Migration Survey data covering 10,000 households. It aims to focus on the determinants of fertility in Pakistan, specifically the determinants of the adoption of deliberate fertility regulations. The role of socia-economic modernisation and cultural factors in the determination of the potential family size and the adoption of deliberate fertility control through a knowledge of fertility regulations have also been explored. The ‘Synthesis Framework’ of fertility determination, applied to Sri Lanka and Colombia by Easterlin and Crimmins (1982), and with its recent modifications by Ahmed (1987), is the main vehicle for the study.