The global fertility transition and Nepal

Knowledge of the global fertillity transition has increased greatly in recent times. There are three major sources which compare fertility movements across a range of countries. The first was the European Project of Princeton University's Office of Population Research, reported in a range of papers and books and summarised in Coale and Watkins (1986). The second has been the inclusion in the various revisions of World Population Prospects, brought out by the United Nations Population Division of demographic estimates for each country begining with the quinquennium 1950-55 (United Nations, various dates). The third is a recent attempt by Bongarts and Watkins (1996) to use both these United Nations data and others on human development to analyse the timing of the onset of fertility decline.