Help
fertility — English
The quality of being able to reproduce. In Geography this term is mostly used in connection with human populations and population increase. In most sciences fertility is regarded as the ability of every female member of the population to produce offspring. In some populations females produce less offspring than in others. The fertility rate is the measure to express the number of offspring every female is bound to produce. Of course, the figures are averages and therefore are expressed in decimals and do not apply to each and every female. The total fertility rate (TFR) is the number of babies every woman in the population is expected to have. The present world fertility rate is 3,1. Since this is a global average it does not convey much information about any one specific area or country. In most African countries women often give birth to eight or eleven children, but in other countries they have one or two or three children. In China they had for many years not been allowed to have more than one baby (this prohibition has now been lifted). The fertility rate does not necessarily indicate the population growth rate, as infants and children might die, but the average number of children every woman is expected to have, is a good indication of how fast the population might be growing, and it is a handy statistic to compare different populations.
