ABSTRACT
The miniature baby boom of the 1960s among 15-29-year-old women continued through the 1970s. Then after 1980 fertility rates fell in this as in older age groups. As in the other developing countries of Europe, the fall in fertility was probably due to rising material expectations and cramped urban accommodation, as well as the meagreness of public welfare provi sions such as family benefits, maternity leave, child care facilities, medical
services and schools. A survey of 1983 found that the size of family which the average couple desired (2.5 children) was above the actual number of 2.2. Expectations became more realistic; and a survey of women in the metropolitan region in 1997 found that the majority did not want more than two children, while 17 per cent wanted only one, and 10 per cent did not want any.2
