The World Fertility Survey: An Assessment.

For the first time in history an attempt was made with the World Fertility Survey (WFS) to organize a sample survey comparable across a large number of countries. Between 1973 and 1984 61 countries completed a survey of fertility under the coordination of the London office of the International Statistical Institute. This book attempts to record this experience. The WFS surveys were carried out by national staff in each country. Between 2500 and 10000 women in the age range 15-49 were interviewed in nationally representative samples. Questionnaires were largely but not fully standardized: there were many national adaptations and questions were translated into local languages. The data were processed into a standardized data tape which is available for international research. WFS set itself the objective of reporting its main conclusions to an international symposium held in London in 1984. This volume is based largely on the papers prepared for this symposium; of the 39 chapters that follow 27 were either presented or discussed at the symposium or available as background papers. Authors were asked not to confine themselves to factual descriptions but to attempt an evaluatation of WFS methods and achievements. This volume is structured so that the sequence of chapters follows a logical path from the design and execution of surveys to analysis and dissemination of results and finally to their implications for future surveys and government policies.