Levels and Determinants of Fertility in Liberia

Martin Palamuleni, North West University

The main objective of the paper was to study the patterns and determinants of fertility in Liberia in the period 1988 to 2013. The study applied decomposition methods to quantify the effect of the direct and indirect determinants of fertility in Liberia using data from the 1986, 2007 and 2013 Liberia Demographic and Health Surveys. The findings show that Total Fertility Rate declined from 6.5 in 1986 to 4.7 in 2013. Application of the Bongaarts model established that postpartum infectundability followed by marriage and abortion had the strongest inhibiting effect on fertility over the study period. Other decomposition methods revealed that most of the decline in fertility is accounted for by changes in proportion married and marital fertility. Based on these findings the study recommends additional government measures that will increase the age at marriage while at the same time strengthening the family planning services should be implemented.