SAMPLE SURVEYS FOR FAMILY PLANNING RESEARCH IN TAIWAN.

In Taiwan, conditions appear to be usually favorable for a fertility decline, if low mortality and considerable social development are facilitating conditions. Mortality has been low in Taiwan for some time, and development, as indicated by literacy, circulation of the mass media, nonagricultural employment, growth of gross national product, etc., is considerably above the average of low-fertility countries, as of September 1, 1964. About two years ago, the Michigan Population Center began to work with the Provincial Health Department of Taiwan on studies of the population situation and of family planning efforts. The first task was to examine facts about birth rates available in rather good official records. These confirmed the probability of a favorable situation for fertility decline in at least two ways. First, the birth rate had already been declining slowly all over the island since 1957. Second, the age pattern of the decline was especially significant. Birth rates had not declined for women under thirty, but only for those over thirty, and the decline increased rapidly with age. This is exactly what happened in the West at a similar stage of development.