Population Pressure and Fertility Changes in Costa Rica, 1906-1970

Abstract

"The demographic history of Costa Rica in the twentieth century is examined in the context of a model of dynamic adjustment to changing child survival probabilities and micro-level population pressure. Micro-level population pressure is viewed as resulting from a couple having children beyond its current optimal family size, given current prices and its income. Cantonal regression analyses for the time periods, 1927-1950, 1951-1953 to 1961-1963, and 1961-1963 to 1970 lend support to the hypothesis that the secular fertility decline in Costa Rica is a dynamic adjustment to high completed family size and increasing child survival probabilities."