Is fertility level in less developed rapidly growing regions really influenced by literacy rate and age at marriage? A case of Punjab, Pakistan

Fertility is the most fundamental aspect of human life that assures continuation of the human society and determines size of population of any area at any given time. Because of its enormous impact on population augmentation and socio-economic attributes of the society, need for the study of fertility cannot be overlooked specifically for a heavily populated and rapidly growing region like Punjab Province of Pakistan. Fertility in this developing region is determined by a complex interplay of many factors. Among them, literacy rate and age at marriage are believed to be the most imperative determinants of fertility. The study in point, besides measuring the fertility rate in Punjab at district level, investigates the interaction that exists between literacy, age at marriage and fertility. To probe the dynamic relationship between these variables, census data of 34 districts of Punjab have been used. Quantitative analysis made by using Computer software SPSS revealed a clear cut inverse relationship between literacy ratio and fertility and between age at marriage and fertility. Literacy ratio and age at marriage showed strong positive association with each other. This suggests that there is a strong interaction between literacy, age at marriage and fertility. The impact of literacy on fertility is, however, multifarious. An increase in literacy ratio may bring a change in the perception level of the people and their attitude towards the family size. It may also cause a rise in age at marriage that in turn exert depressing impact on fertility by reducing exposed fertile span of fecund females. The study thus suggests, specifically for those working on to constraint fertility that they should focus more to increase literacy rate and age at marriage if they truly want to influence fertility. The current study is aimed at investigating the impact of literacy rate and age at marriage on fertility at district level in Punjab.&nbsp