スリランカの出生力の地域性
Regional variations of Fertility Levels and Trends in Sri Lanka

クルピタゲ ディルハーニ ウィジェシンハ (麗澤大学大学院)
Kurupitage Dilhani Wijesinghe (Graduate School of Reitaku University)
a17001d@reitaku.jp

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious small island country located in the South Asianregion. Despite the low level of economic development, people in Sri Lanka have benefited from freeeducation and free health facilities for decades. As a result, Sri Lanka has achieved favorable
demographic levels of fertility, mortality and various other demographic and health indicators. This
benefited socio demographic background has allowed Sri Lanka to experience a rapid demographictransition. However the progress of demographic transition is regionally diverse due to thesocioeconomic, ethnic, religious and cultural contrast which goes together with the development leveland urbanization level of regions. Since there are no recent studies on regional fertility in Sri Lanka
this paper analyzes the regional variations of fertility levels and trends, considering the second
administrative division (district level) of 25 districts.
This paper utilizes data from three main sources: Sri Lankan Demographic and health surveys,
the vital registration system (birth registration) and population censuses. The analysis includes
regional fertility data of Crude Birth Rate (CBR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), age at first sexualintercourse, age at first marriage and age at first birth, trends of illegitimate births, difference between
ideal number of children and children ever born, behavior of birth spacing, trends of sex ratio at birthand prevalence of contraception.
The onset of Sri Lankan fertility transition marked around the 1960s and achieved thereplacement level of fertility even before the dawn of the new century (De Silva, 1994).

Fertility

rates gradually declined until 2000. However, Sri Lanka approached to a unique transitional stage
demonstrating a sudden increase of TFR from 1.9 in 1995-2000 to 2.3 in 2003-2006 (Department ofCensus and Statistics, 2009). The current TFR in Sri Lanka is 2.2, slightly above the replacement level(Department of Census and Statistics, 2017). No single developing country has demonstrated this kindof fluctuation in TFR after reaching below replacement levels (De Silva et al, 2010). Hence the conceptof below to above replacement level fertility in Sri Lanka challenges the conventional demographictransition theory.
The findings reveal that various regions of Sri Lanka stand at different stages of fertility
transition. By 2016, 12 districts have marked replacement level or below replacement level fertility
whereas other districts followed a declining trend of TFR with the exceptions of three districts. In
majority of districts, age at marriage increased slightly while few districts reported dramatic increases
up to 2006. However, by 2012, the age at marriage were decreasing in most districts compared to1981, except a few war affected districts (Department of Census and Statistics, 2015). Even thoughmore than 98 percent of births occurred within wedlock in Sri Lanka, regional data showed notable
contrast between regions. Especially, war affected districts where majority of Sri Lankan Tamil people
lived, reported having high illegitimate births continuously. Considering the age at marriage and lengthof first birth interval, Batticaloa and Kegalle districts had the highest interval in 2006 and 2016consecutively. Likewise, the first birth interval showed an increasing trend in most districts. Despite
the natural level of sex ratio at birth in Sri Lanka, some regions, mainly, war affected districts reflectedunusual values continuously without reflecting a son or daughter preference. Moreover it is interesting
to note that the least developed rural districts in Sri Lanka have reported high prevalence of modern
contraceptives compared to urban districts. These findings suggest that Sri Lankan socio demographic
achievements do not equally spread throughout regions and studies on Sri Lankan regional fertility
behavior will explore a new aspect of fertility transition.

References
De Silva W.I. (1994). Ahead of target : achievement of replacement level fertility in Sri Lanka before the year 2000. Asia-Pacific
Population Journal. 9(4)P. 3-22.
De Silva, W.I. Perera, N.P. & Anuranga, K.C. (2010). Below to above Replacement: Increased Fertility and its Determinants in SriLanka. Asia-Pacific Population Journal. 25(2):P. 27-52
Sri Lanka. Department of Census and Statistics. (2009). Sri Lanka Demographic & Health Survey 2006-07. Colombo: Department ofCensus and Statistics.
Sri Lanka. Department of Census and Statistics. (2015). Census of Population and Housing- 2012. Colombo: Department of Censusand Statistics.
Sri Lanka. Department of Census and Statistics. (2017). Sri Lanka Demographic & Health Survey 2016. Colombo: Department ofCensus and Statistics.