ABSTRACT
A substantial fertility decline has taken place throughout Southeast Asia since 1965. Mean parity for married women thirty-five years of age in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines is, at present, about five children per woman as reported by the World Fertility Survey. In short, a 50 percent reduction in marital fertility is apparently expected. The key to more effective programming for population control in the future may be found by an intensive examination of factors associated with fertility changes in a single country. The notion of “rapid feedback” implies that the interval between family planning program improvements and recognizable declines in fertility is short, although the issue is not addressed specially in the manuals. The Area Fertility Surveys, as a demographic measurement program, appear to meet or exceed the requirements established by J. Donald Bogue for monitoring and evaluation of a family planning program and the detection of demographic trends.
