Srinagar: For the first time Jammu and Kashmir’s total fertility rate (TFR), which is births per woman, has dropped to 1.4.
The National Family Health Survey data for 2019-21, released on Wednesday reveals Jammu and Kashmir is also the state that recorded the highest decline of 0.6 in fertility rate between the last survey in 2015-16 and the latest one.
India’s TFR has also dropped below replacement level and is now 2 from 5.6 births per woman in 1950.
India now has 1,020 women for every 1000 men and is not getting any younger.
Experts says it will have an adverse impact on economic and social life in India, which will decline the number of working-aged adults and reduce GDP growth rates.
The share of population under the age of 15 years, which was 34.9% in 2005-06, has come down to 26.5% in 2019-21.
Reports have suggested India’s working-age population will decline from 762 million in 2017 to 580 million by 2100.
However, while Punjab’s fertility rate has remained the same, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the only states in India where fertility rate went up, though marginally, to 1.8 in the 2019-21 survey. Sikkim has the lowest fertility rate of 1.1.
This is equivalent to the lowest fertility rate in the world of 1.1 in South Korea. According to UN Population data, the highest fertility rate is in Niger (6.9) and Somalia (6.1). Among the neighbouring countries,
Nepal has the lowest fertility of 1.9 followed by India and Bangladesh (2). Barring Africa (4.4) and Oceania (2.4), all geographic regions have achieved replacement level fertility rate of 2.1 or less. Asia’s TFR is 2.15, just a touch above replacement level.
