A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Fertility Patterns in India: Evidence from NFHS-5

The present study examines some dimensions of fertility patterns across states in India using recent data on key indicators obtained from Round 5 of NFHS.The analysis of data shows considerable statelevel heterogeneity in total fertility rate, total wanted fertility rate, early childbearing, and preference for sons.The study establishes that the state-level fertility patterns are correlated with socioeconomic covariates, like wealth, rural population, literacy levels, exposure to media, early marriage, and use of modern family planning practices.The classification of states based on total fertility, early marriage, adoption of modern family planning practices, and early childbearing indicates that fertility patterns are better understood in the context of the prevailing diversity in India's socioeconomic and cultural features.Using the NFHS classification of states into six regions-central, east, north, northeast, south, and west regions, the differences in means of observed fertility across regions are not found to be statistically significant for total fertility rate and total wanted fertility rate.We find the difference between east and northeast regions vs north region to be statistically significant for early childbearing and, east and west regions vs south to be significant in case of the preference for sons.Overall, the presence of overwhelming differences in regional patterns in the fertility indicators is not seen and we find no statistically significant evidence of a North-South divide.Our analysis shows that recognizing within-region variations in fertility provides a better understanding of fertility patterns and is useful and relevant for policy purposes.