MYANMAR'S Fertility Rate Declines

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

MYANMAR'S Fertility Rate Declines

Xinhua
18-FEB-99
YANGON (Feb. 18) XINHUA - The fertility rate of Myanmar women declined and the
contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) increased between 1991 and 1997, according
to the findings of the country's fertility and reproductive health survey
(FRHS). 

The CPR of Myanmar women was found to be 33 percent in 1997, said U Saw Tun,
Myanmar Minister of Immigration and Population, at a dissemination workshop on
findings of FRHS for entry into the country report to be issued, official
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday. 

The two-day workshop, which began here Wednesday, is jointly conducted by the
Myanmar ministry and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). 

U Saw Tun quoted the findings of the FRHS as saying that "the birth and death
rates are declining and the population growth rate is also declining finally
resulting in a decline in the proportion of the younger ages, the growing
number of the population in the working ages and the old age population." 

As for fertility, it is higher among rural women than urban with the western
Rakhine state having the highest fertility rate which reflects the slow
progress of the region in the past, he said. 

He disclosed that about 55 percent of Myanmar women and over 12 percent of
those aged between 45-49 are of never-married category, indicating an unusual
finding about Myanmar. 

This high proportion of never-married accounted for 50 percent of the
fertility
decline of the country, he added. 

As part of the country's birth-spacing program, the Myanmar ministry undertook
the FRHS in 1997, the second countrywide demographic survey, to produce
reliable estimates of major survey variables for the whole country, including
both urban and rural areas. 

The first survey, which was population changes and fertility survey (PCFS) and
conducted in 1991, showed Myanmar's fertility rate standing at 3.5 but it
dropped to 2.8 in the 1997 survey. 

The contraceptive prevalence rate in the PCFS in 1991 was 16.8 percent. 

In 1997, the infant and maternal mortality rates in Myanmar were 48.6 and 1.7
per 1,000 births respectively. 

Myanmar's population is estimated to have reached 46.4 million in the 1997-98
fiscal year, maintaining an annual growth rate of 1.84 percent, according to

official statistics.