Parity Progression Analysis of Fertility Decline in Provinces and Major Islands of Indonesia 1963-90, Executive Summary by Norman Y. Luther and Bambang Yohanes Kristianto. East-West Center Working Papers, Population and Health Series, No. 98. January 1998. 16 pp.

Abstract

The Indonesian government launched a national family planning program in 1970. Largely due to adoption of modern contraceptive methods provided by the program, total fertility in Indonesia declined from 5.6 children per woman in the late 1960s to 3.2 at the end of the 1980s. Recent surveys indicate that the fertility decline has continued into the 1990s.

In order to evaluate the family planning program and identify target areas for increased effectiveness, this study calculates period parity progression ratios (PPRs) and total fertility rates (TFRs) for the period 1963-90 for Indonesia's provinces and regions. Results show that the two-child family is being increasingly adopted in Java and Bali, although more slowly in West Java than in other Java and Bali provinces. Outside Java and Bali, in provinces where family planning was introduced later, fertility tends to be considerably higher.

In every province, fertility is lower in urban areas than in the countryside. Fertility also goes down with women's education and is particularly low for women who have completed high school or above. Women holding non-agricultural jobs have lower fertility than women holding agricultural jobs, and both these groups have much lower fertility than women who do not have jobs.