Kristen Gyles | Money can’t buy motherhood

While women across the globe were having an average of five children in 1960, they are now having an average of two. This is a global phenomenon and not simply a local one. This is important to acknowledge because isolated figures showing a decline in Jamaica’s fertility rate might cause some to think that Jamaica, in particular, has a birth-rate problem. For context, Jamaica’s (total) fertility rate fell from about 5.3 children per woman in 1960 to 1.9 in 2023. So, the local reality almost mirrors the global one.

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