Achievement of one-child fertility in rural areas of Jilin Province, China

The total fertility rate for the rural areas of Jilin Province, China, fell from two children per woman to the unprecedentedly low level of one between 1982 and 1985. This rapid decline was mainly due to the curtailment of childbearing after first births among young married women in response to the government's one-child family policy. Logistic regression analyses show that women whose only child is a boy, whose ideal number of children is one or whose husbands have some formal education, as well as women who belong to the Han majority, are more likely than others to accept a one-child certificate. Among women in their 20s, those with a formal education are less likely than those with no formal education to accept a certificate, but among older women, the relationship between education and certificate acceptance is positive. -Authors