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The rapid fertility decline to below the replacement level in the Chiang Mai area of Thailand.


 The 1st part of this paper presents findings on differences in socioeconomic characteristics between the Chiang Mai (Thailand) city population and populations in other study areas based on analysis of data of a demographic sample survey in Chaing Mai. A 2nd section includes a description of findings on attitudes towards "small" and "large" family sizes. A subsequent section describes the detailed patterns of rapid fertility decline from 1954-78 for each study area. The last part of the paper examines nuptiality and family planning factors in accounting for the decline of fertility. Each women interviewed asked 2 questions concerning her attitude towards large and small family sizes. The findings suggest that women in both urban and rural areas of Chiang Mai province prefer a small family size. The ideal family size preferred by 80.5% was 3 or less. 49.7% accepted an ideal family size of only 2 children. Fertility levels of the Chiang Mai city population as compared with rural populations from 1954-78 show a marked fertility decline in every age group starting after 1954-78 for women in Chiang Mai city and after 1959-63 for women in the other study areas. By 1974-78 fertility levels reached levels "lower than replacement" in all study areas. There was a marked fall in fertility in every age group of the currently reproductive age in all of the study areas. Fertility in every age group continues to fall, even though it has already reached very low levels. As a result, the actual fertility in women at high reproductive ages is now very low. The pattern of fertility decline in all study areas in almost universal. Lastly, the start of the fertility decline took place earlier in Chiang Mai city, in the cohort age 40-44 when they were 25-29, but the start of fertility decline also occurred in the remaining 3 study areas in the same cohort (age 40-44), at age 30-34, instead of 25-29 as in the city, suggesting that fertility decline in the Chiang Mai rural areas followed Chiang Mai city by approximately 5 years. The age structure of the Chaing Mai population in 1960 represents the typical high fertility population; whereas the changes observed in the age structure of 1970, in age group 5-90 and 0-4, suggests that some decline of fertility had already occurred during the first half of the decade and became more rapid in the second. In addition, the changes in age struture of the city population in 1980, in age groups 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 15-19, demonstrates the continuing rapid fertility decline into the 1970s. Women in the Chiang Mai area accepted many contraceptive methods. The most popular methods were oral contraceptives and injectables. Findings from this demographic sample confirm the impact of family planning programs on the decline of fertility, from a high level to below the replacement level in fewer than 20 years.
