Causes of High Fertility in Developing Countries

Causes of High Fertility in Developing Countries

Following are the factors resulted in high fertility in developing countries

Motivational Factors

In pre-industrial societies and in agricultural social groups, there is emphasis on cooperative activities, joint families, joint occupations and community living. These are the basic motives for high fertility rate. In agricultural societies children are valued due to economic, social, religious and cultural factors. Economically they start earning and helping the parents at very young age. Several wives having dozens of children are assets to a male in backward societies.

In most of the primitive societies, the bigger families leads to higher social status and manpower. Wars also motivate higher birth rate. Another motivating factor is the fatalistic attitude, that children are gifts of god. The countries professing Hinduism, Islam and Judaism religion has motivated high fertility and encourage high birth rates in the developing countries.

Economic Factors

Poverty leads to illiteracy, low standard of living and promote fertility rate. The children in lower economic group very soon start helping their parents in earning their living. So, increase in number of children leads to increase in income. It means the low economic status leads to high fertility.

Social Factors

Social factors encourage fertility which include joint family, caste system, and lack of social mobility, lower status of women, community life and joint occupation. So, the above factors are responsible for high birth rate in the developing countries. There government and other private agencies have launched family planning programmes to control the high birth rates in these developing countries. However, most of the developing countries particularly the Islamic countries, are still showing high fertility rates.