%0 English Abstract
%T [Fertility in Colombia].
%A Ojeda G
%J Profamilia
%V 16
%N 31
%D Jun 1998
%M 12348802
暂无%X Demography, which should be the basis for planning of any program or project, has traditionally been ignored by Colombian governments.  No population statistics are available for the pre-Conquest period in Colombia.  Statistics during the Colonial era were based on population counts for division of lands, taxation, and similar considerations.  The first census was undertaken around 1770.  Colombia's most recent census was in 1993, and another is being prepared for 2000.  The censuses have been useful for development purposes despite their significant limitations of completeness and accuracy.  Colombia's population in 1997 was estimated at 40,300,000, making it the third most populous country of Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.  Fertility has declined considerably since 1965.  Colombia's crude birth rate is believed to have exceeded 50/1000 in the 18th and 19th centuries and was estimated at 45/1000 by the Latin American Demographic Center for the first half of the 20th century.  The crude birth rate was 41.3/1000 in 1968, 33.1/1000 in 1973, 30/1000 in 1980, and around 26/1000 in 1990 and 1995.  The total fertility rate was estimated at 7.0 in 1960-65, 6.7 in 1969, 4.5 in 1973, 3.2 in 1985, and 2.9 in 1995.  Fertility declined most appreciably before 1975, but rates continue to drop in rural as well as urban areas and in all geographic zones.  For Colombia as a whole the total fertility rate is 4.8 for women with less than 5 years of schooling and 2.4 for those with 8 or more years.  It is 2.7 in urban and 4.4 in rural areas.