Fertility at the district level in India : lessons from the 2011 census

This paper describes the methodology for estimating recent fertility levels at the district level in India based on the 2011 Census figures. Due to the absence of reliable vital statistics for Indian districts, fertility levels are assessed using a set of indirect methods. Using mortality estimates and the child population aged 0-6 years to estimate the number of births during the seven years preceding the census, figures for crude birth rates and fertility rates are derived for all Indian districts. The results are compared with those derived from the 2001 Census. Our analysis points, in particular, to the significant population overcount in Jammu and Kashmir during the 2011 Census and the continuous but extremely slow process of fertility decline in India