An analysis of human fertility in Northern Ireland

Abstract

There has never been a special inquiry into the population of Northern Ireland such as that of the Royal Commission on Population (1946) in Great Britain. In fact, apart from three questions on fertility in the 1911 census which covered the whole of Ireland and for which the only published fertility tables relevant to Northern Ireland were in respect of Belfast County Borough, the 1961 census schedule was the first one to contain fertility questions. The fertility report from this census will probably be published some time in 1964 For the purpose of this paper, it has been necessary to calculate a measure of fertility which would give an indication of the trend of fertility over the years in different areas within the Province.