Social Class and Preferred Family Size in Peru

Data from a survey of currently mated women in Lima, Peru, and a highland Peruvian town indicate a positive relation between social class and number of children desired but a negative relation between class and previous thought or discussions of family size. Lower-class preferences for small families may fail to be activated because of various misperceptions of fertility and mortality. In particular, the lower classes tend to overestimate average fertility and average ideal family size and to view fertility and mortality as unchanging or increasing.