family planning

Poster publicizing the government's one family one child policy in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Under this policy families are offered incentives to have only one child in order to slow the population increase.

Deliberate control of human population growth by various means (contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion), in order to reduce the birth rate. The majority of developing nations now have governments that support some sort of family planning programme.

Since the early 1950s India has taken the lead among developing nations to control its population growth, with government-sponsored programmes. However, in April 2001, it became the second country after China to have a population of over 1 billion. In China, there is a one-child policy, and couples lose large financial benefits if they have a second child.

The average number of pregnancies per woman is two in the industrialized countries, where 71% use birth control, compared with six or seven pregnancies per woman in the developing world.

In the face of increased populations and decreased food supplies and natural resources, family planning has become a priority for some nations.

Family size Access to family planning is only one of the factors that determine family size. The others are health care for mothers and children, family income, education for women, and women's status in society. Poor people tend to have large families but mothers and children are more likely to be undernourished and vulnerable to disease; women who have had little or no schooling have twice as many children as women who have received higher education; and women whose status in the community depends on their role as wives and mothers have more children than women who enjoy other social rights and duties.