From data from the 1971 Melbourne Family Survey a comparison has been made of the number of children that respondents first planned to have, their expected family size, and their preferred family size, to determine factors associated with their ability to adhere to the original plans, and satisfaction with their ultimate family size. The data suggest that, after beginning their childbearing, some women change their minds about how many children they want, while others are unable to have as many children as they want or else have more than they really want. A substantial proportion of women would have preferred to have a family size different from the one they have attained, and more consistent with the number of children they had originally planned.

A survey of married men living with their wives revealed that they had, on the average, been married for 14 years and had 2.8 children. The men in this survey were found to be positively oriented towards family planning. Seventy-nine per cent were using a contraceptive at the time of the survey. The analysis revealed that race and education explained differences in contraceptive practice. Black males reported using more effective methods, namely the pill, than white males. The examination of the effect of education revealed that as education increased, the racial differences persisted except for those men with education beyond high school.

In a pilot survey about family size and the use of contraception for which the sample was the parents of legitimate babies the interviews with fathers were systematically divided between men and women interviewers. There was no difference in the response rate of the two groups and although there were some differences in the types of answers given to certain questions most of the differences might have occurred by chance. We could not see any clear pattern in the sorts of response that varied.

A hypothesis about the variation was put forward by some of our advisers and we collected some further information about this which did not support the hypothesis. On the basis of this study we do not feel it necessary to recruit and train men to interview the fathers on the main study but are using women interviewers for both mothers and fathers.

This article applies the statistical concepts of affinity and distance to live-birth data and suggests that the method may be of relevance in population problems. The distributions among villages in Kerala, south-west India, of the number of live births in each religious grouping are compared, and measures of affinity and distance among these distributions calculated. Such distances calculated for three successive periods show secular trends which may indicate changing patterns of group behaviour.

Pregnancy occurring in girls under the age of 17 is of particular interest to those providing obstetric care and family planning services, as well as to the social welfare services in the community. Childbirth in girls of this age carries greater risk to mother and child than in the immediately older age groups and a young mother having a baby, whether married or not, may face social and economic difficulties. This study is designed to find out basic facts about girls having terminations of pregnancy or continuing to have a baby in this young age group, relating to: parents and family of origin, housing, education, religion, knowledge of sex and fertility, use of contraception and nature of the relationship with the father of the child.

The findings suggest that there is an urgent need for improving the provision and effectiveness of sex education, that the provision of contraceptive advice to the very young should be reviewed and improved, and that the type of relationships between boys and girls leading to the pregnancies described in this study are neither casual nor ‘promiscuous’. The findings that those conceiving under the age of 15, and keeping the baby, made their first attendance at the antenatal clinic very late in the pregnancy suggests that these girls take an undue risk with their health, possibly due to the present state of the law regarding sexual intercourse in young people. The ideas of ‘wantedness’ and ‘planning’ in relation to conception are discussed.