Overview

In the 1980s, Thailand experienced a remarkable revolution in reproductive behavior, resulting in a rapidly declining fertility rate. The authors of this book follow an unusual approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the reasons for this decline. Their work makes possible a thorough understanding, in demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural terms, of a phenomenon of critical importance to Developing World population trends and development. The Thai experience is an especially important case study in part because its fertility decline took place while the country was still at only a moderate stage of socioeconomic development and because the changes in reproductive behavior and attitudes have been so pervasive, permeating almost all segment so of Thai society.The authors have amassed an impressive amount of data, which they present and interpret in the clearest of terms, in forming what will certainly be the standard work on this topic, of interest and value to demographers and all others concerned with Developing World problems.