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Underreporting of Births and Infant Deaths in Rural China: Evidence from Field Research in One County of Northern China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

M. Giovanna Merli
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Abstract

Between the beginning of the 1950s and the early 1970s, China, like many other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, experienced rapid population growth. This was due mainly to a dramatic mortality decline not offset by any decline in the birth rate. In 1970, China had a crude birth rate of 33.43 (per 1,000), a crude death rate of 7.60 (per 1,000) and a rate of natural increase of 25.83. “Population growth” was identified as a fundamental obstacle to economic development, and the stage was set for large-scale state interventions in the process of human reproduction. The apotheosis of this intervention was the introduction, in 1979, of the One Child Policy, which was successfully implemented in the urban areas. In rural areas, policies promoting later marriage, one child – maximum two – per couple, and greater spacing of those births that are permitted contributed to the swift fertility decline witnessed over the last three decades. In 1996 China's birth and death rates were reported at 16.98 per 1,000 and 6.56 per 1,000 respectively and the population was growing at 10.42 per 1,000.

Type
Research Note
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 155 , September 1998 , pp. 637 - 655
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1998

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References

* Thanks to Herbert Smith, William Lavely, Stevan Harrell and Samuel Preston for their valuable suggestions and constructive comments.

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