ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several “deep background” variables which, according to theory, should be considered as indirect fertility determinants: household income and occupation of household head. The John Bongaarts model relating indirect and direct determinants of fertility has proven to be a useful guide in developing the primary and secondary aspects of the contemporary Philippine pattern of reproduction. The distribution of household socioeconomic status, in turn, mirrors prevailing levels of development within the community, province and region. Households consisting of single persons or unrelated persons are also tabulated separately. The metropolitan area male household heads also represent the heaviest concentration of graduate students and graduate degree holders. Both education and income may be graded according to the status hierarchy formed by occupations of household heads. The inverse relationship between poverty and extended family residence is very firmly established and leads to the conclusion that nuclear family households provide a supportive environment for high marital fertility.
