Factors Affecting Fertility in Sylhet Division of Bangladesh: A Path Analytic Approach

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to study the effects of selected socio-economic and demographic factors on fertility in Sylhet administrative division of Bangladesh based on the data collected in the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2004 employing the technique of path analysis for two age cohorts of women, IO paths out of 23 hypothesized paths are found to be statistically significant for both the age cohorts below 30 years and aged 30-49 years respectively, It is found that age at effective first marriage has significant direct negative effect 011 fertility for both the cohorts, Total effect of female education 011 fertility is observed to be negative while the total effects of religion and place of residence on fertility are found to be positive for both the age cohorts of women,