"Trends in Inter-Birth Intervals in Developing Countries, 1965-2014"
Birth spacing patterns are a fundamental feature of any reproductive regime, with direct bearing on maternal and child health. Analyzing birth history data from 274 surveys conducted in 66 countries from 1975 to 2014, we generate estimates of key parameters of inter-birth interval for five-year historical periods 1965-69 to 2010-14. The estimates provide convincing evidence, for all major regions, of substantial increase in the inter-birth interval during contemporary fertility transitions. The increase is larger for the second interval than for all intervals combined, and in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America as compared to the other two major regions (Asia and the Arab Region). Correspondingly, the incidence of short intervals (<24 months) has declined sharply--a real achievement for maternal and child health--and the incidence of long intervals (60+ months) has increased markedly. The lengthening of intervals accelerates as fertility decline progresses: a prominent feature of the emergent low fertility regimes in many of these countries is long spacing between births.
Dr. Casterline is Director of The Institute for Population Research and Robert T Lazarus Professor in Population Studies, in the Department of Sociology, at The Ohio State University. His research interests include demography, family, and research methods. Dr. Casterline's current research is in social networks and fertility change, reproductive change in Africa, demographic change in the Arab region, and causes and consequences of fertility decline. Dr. Casterline received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1980
