1979 MEXICO NATIONAL FERTILITY AND MORTALITY SURVEY : A SUMMARY OF RESULTS

This report summarizes the findings of a 1979 National Fertility and Mortality Survey indicating progress towards these goals. The survey was multipurpose and used a two-part questionaire: one part seeking basic demographic data from 18,505 representative households; the other collecting information on fertility, infant mortality, and related matters from 20,482 women aged l5-49 years in those same households. The survey showed that, despite evidence of a slight tendency towards aging in comparison with 1970 and 1976 data, Mexico"s population is still relatively young, with 45.3% under age l5 and only 3.9% aged 65 and over. The crude birth rate was estimated at 33-37/1000 as compared with 43.4/1000 in 1977. In its most dramatic finding, the survey estimated the total fertility rate at 4.73 children per woman -- a decline of l8% since the 1976 survey. Furthermore, estimates of age-specific fertility rates for single years from l97l to l979 showed a general downward trend for all age groups. The crude death rate, which was estimated indirectly due to incomplete reporting, was approximately 8/1000, while estimations of infant mortality rates showed a 20-25% decline over the previous l2-l5 years. To estimate adult mortality rates, the death distribution, widowhood, and orphanhood methods, which, in addition to making estimates according to the age of the respondent, also delineate survivorship probabilities from birth to specific ages, were used. Despite discrepancies between methods in regard to the general level of mortality, all methods showed that mortality rates are higher for males than for females, corresponding, respectively, to levels 17-18 and 18-19 on the Coale-Demeny West Family model life tables. These estimates also allowed the crude death rate to be adjusted to 6.8-7.4/1000 and annual growth rate to be adjusted to 2.8-3.1% in the population 5 years and over. A 24-item list of references (1955-80) in Spanish and English is appended.