Fertility Pattern and Differential in India

The study attempt to study fertility Pattern and Differential in India considering the background characteristics including different Caste, educational level, wealth index, mortality rates, and religious groups, and also to determine factors affecting them. For the study the data used are from the five rounds of the National Family Health Survey such as NFHS-1 (1992-93), NFHS-2 (1998-99), NFHS-3 (2005-06), NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21). The data are collected from the twenty-five states in which the factors such as total fertility rate, residence, education, religion, caste, and wealth index were taken from background characteristics of NFHS-2 to NFHS-5 whereas the missing data in between and for NFHS-1 (1992-93) are obtained through interpolation. Thus, the data is balanced panel data, the panel data regression model is used to determine the factors that influence the fertility pattern and differential using Eviews 12 software. The study found fertility differential among caste, religion, wealth index, mortality index, educational level, and residence. And the fertility differential is found to be affected by contraceptive use, birth order, age at first marriage, birth interval, unmet need for family planning, and sex preference among the couples.