TFR is the average number of live births a woman would have by the end of her child bearing age. The concept assumes that they were subject to the age-specific fertility rates and were not subject to mortality.
Most of the population reduction programmes targets a particular TFR. For example, in India, the TFR of 2.1 is the objective of the national population policy. Few states have achieved this. India’s TFR is estimated to be 2.3 and 21 states have achieved the TFR of 2.1 as as on end 2016.
Significance of TFR
TFR indirectly shows the pace of increase in population. Similarly, in countries where TFR is high, women limit themselves in families looking after the children. Here, the working and economic empowerment of women will be poor.
TFR also have implications on the demographic status of countries. For example, in countries with experiencing below-replacement fertility (lower than 2.1 children per women), ageing of population accelerates as enough children are not born to replace reduction in population.
