The reproduction rate in Latin America: Levels, differentials and trends

Abstract

There has been comparatively little study of the rate of reproduction in Latin America. This is especially true with respect to the area as a whole but it is also the case with respect to almost every one of the twenty countries taken separately. It is equally true if one is thinking of studies of the birth rate by Latin American scholars or if one has in mind the endeavours of demographers in the United States Europe or other parts of the world. As will be indicated below however prior to 1950 the date available for comprehensive study of the fertility of the population in the area lying between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn were so incomplete and unreliable that substantial work even by the most experienced demographers would have yielded comparatively modest results. Naturally many economists sociologist and other who have written about Latin American economy and society have included some mention of the birth rate in their books and articles even presenting on some occasions a few of the statistical data compiled in various countries. Perhaps the first of these deserving mention however is the effort made in 1940 by Alejandro Bunge of Argentina to bolster his thesis relative to the splendour and decadence of the white race with data purporting to show that the birth rate was declining in Argentina Chile and Uruguay as well as in the various European countries the United States and Canada and in Australian and New Zealand. The endevour of Linder (1941) to assemble fertility data for the Latin American and other portions of the Caribbean Area and the work done by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in co-operation with the Office of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs in assembling and publishing available birth statistics and birth rates for each of the Latin American countries are other landmarks in the development of the scientific approach to the study of the rate of reproduction throughout Latin America. (excerpt)