Singapore: resumption of rapid fertility decline in 1973.

PIP: Singapore's fertility decline began in the late 1950s, and continued until a record low of 44,562 births in 1969. Subsequently another upswing in the number of births took place, taking a downturn again to 48,269 in 1973. The decline in the crude birthrate in 1973 was entirely caused by a fall in fertility, and was retarded by the fact that there was a rise in the proportion of women in the reproductive ages. Indians and Malays contributed the most to the decline in fertility in 1973, while Chinese fertility only fell 6.6%. Government population legislation and social measures designed to lower the birthrate appear to have noticeably affected reproductive behavior.^ieng

Knowledge, attitudes, and practice of family planning in Singapore.

The First National Survey on Family Planning in Singapore was designed to gather data that would aid in evaluating the program of the National Family Planning and Population Board and the influence of government population policies on attitudes toward family planning. Interviews with 2,078 currently married women aged 15--44 revealed high levels of contraceptive knowledge and use, satisfaction of clinic users with the Board's services, and attitudes that favor greater acceptance of abortion and sterilization. Continued promotion of the concept of the two-child family appears necessary in light of divided opinions of respondents on this government recommendation.

PIP: A KAP survey was conducted in Singapore in 1973 based on the House/Household Listing and Numbering Schedules compiled in the 1970 Population Census. 2945 census houses were selected, and all currently married women aged 15-44 in each selected household were included in the sample. The 2076 eligible women indicated: the appropriate age to marry is 22.6 for women and 26.6 for men; the ideal number of children is 3.1; 69% approve of contraception; 98% have heard of at least one method of contraception, and 77% have at some time practiced contraception; 55% know that abortion is legal in Singapore, and 43% know where it can be obtained; 72% to 96% expressed satisfaction with the government-run family planning program.

The first national survey on family planning in Singapore, 1973.

PIP: Despite the fact that by the end of 1972 191,971 women or about 60% of the population had used the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board's services since its establishment in 1966, the extent of the success of the program cannot be fully assessed and the objectives of future programs properly formulated unless there is reliable and comprehensive data on certain unknown variables. In order to provide this knowledge, a decision was made in April 1973 to conduct the First National Survey on Family Planning in Singapore. The goal was to obtain information concerning the level of family planning phenomena in Singapore in terms of knowledge of attitudes and practice of family planning, legalized abortion, voluntary sterilization as well as the information on knowledge of attitudes toward government population policies and the hard-core nonusers of the services. Concerning methodology, a two stage stratified sample design was used with reticulated housing units forming the primary sampling units and census houses the secondary sampling units. The list of houses used as the sampling frame was obtained from House/Household Listing and Numbering Schedules compiled in the 1970 Population Census. A questionnaire was prepared to collect information on data covering personal characteristics of the respondent and her husband. The fieldwork of the survey was in three phases: a) updating of the sampling frame prior to the selection of census houses; b) the identification of the eligible women for the main surevey, and the interviewing of the eligible women in the main survey itself. Results of the survey indicate that of the 2078 currently married women interviewed, 69% approved of family planning, 11% disapproved, and 19% said "it depends." Regarding induced abortion, 23% approved and 52% disapproved. The ideal family size based on their replies was computed to be 3.1. The survey confirmed that the married women have a good knowledge of family planning methods and that the proportion who have ever practiced birth control reached 77%. Women were generally satisfied with the Board's services, and regarding their attitudes towards government population policies -- it seems that the personal experience of the married women has an important effect on their knowledge of population policies. This has been only a brief account of the survey; however, the detailed results and their implications in terms of new strategies in family planning programmes and population policies will be made available in a full report scheduled to be published in 1974.^ieng

Fertility differentials in early postwar malaya.

During theearlypostwar years up to1957, the three main races in Malaya-Malays, Chinese, and Indians-experienced some differences in their levels of fertility. The lowest fertility was recorded among the Malays, with Chinese and Indian fertility about 5 percent and 10 percent higher, respectively. The comparatively low fertility of the Malays was owing to the exceptionally high rate of divorce, which meant unstable marriages and shorter periods of exposure to the risk of childbearing.A fairly well-defined pattern of state differences in fertility levels is found to exist in Malaya. Briefly, fertility was on the high side in the northern states of Johore, Malacca, and Negri Sembilan, and on the low side in the northern states of Penanq, Kelantan, Perlis, Kedah, and Trengganu, with the central states of Perak, Selangor, and Pahang in the intermediate position.The usual rural-urban fertility differentials are seen to prevail in Malaya as a whole and in the smaller units at state levels. Finally, the three main races registered higher fertility in rural areas, and the greatest gap between rural and urban rates prevailed among the Chinese.

Errors in chinese age statistics.

The first section of this paper is devoted to an analysis of some theoretical aspects of the Chinese system of reckoning ages, and the second section offers a method of collecting the age statistics of a Chinese population: A discussion of the errors found in the age returns and the unsuccessful measures taken to eradicate these errors in the Malayan censuses conducted prior to1957 leads to an appraisal of the method of collecting Chinese age data in the 1957 census.

A problem of estimating a contingency table arising in demographic analysis.

Abstract This note deals with a special problem of estimating a contingency table arising in demographic analysis. What we require are the estimates of the numbers of births and deaths in Malaya crossclassified by state and race for the years of the Japanese occcupation, 1942-45. For many reasons this period had an adverse effect on the Chinese and Indian Communities, and hence the two-fold result of a greater reduction in the number of births and a larger increase in the number of deaths in states with a smaller proportion of Malay population. The estimates are worked out by means of a technique which takes into consideration this actual demographic situation.