The age structure of the population of married women resident in Aberdeen District starting a family has changed over the last two decades. Since 1970, successive populations have tended to be smaller in numbers and older. These tendencies may, in part, be accounted for by couples delaying the start of family building and the related reduction in the proportions of legitimate first births which were prenuptially conceived. Although a feature of all social classes, the later ages and longer marriage durations are class differentiated, women of the higher social classes tending to be older and to have been married longer than those of the lower social classes. The increasing proportion of first pregnancies terminated relates closely to the decline in the proportion of single women, pregnant for the first time, who marry and bear a legitimate child. Although complete comparisons for Aberdeen and Scotland are not possible, the trends with respect to legitimate first births are similar.

Since the 1960s, illegitimacy rates in Britain have increased and it is likely that the rise is related to a changing meaning of illegitimacy. Three cohorts of women bearing illegitimate babies in Aberdeen are studied in order to explore the social context of illegitimacy over the period of rising illegitimacy rates. One cohort of women bore their babies in 1954, a second cohort in 1964 and the third cohort in 1974. By using three sources of official data in conjunction—birth registrations, marriage registrations and hospital records—an effort is made to construct the careers of these women and thereby to obtain some insight into the circumstances in which illegitimacy occurs. It is found that there is a continuing pattern of women who bear illegitimate babies being young, single and primiparous, that the rates of marriage and timing of marriage after delivery of an illegitimate child for all three cohorts are similar and that there is no evidence of an increased incidence of cohabitation. More and better types of data on illegitimacy are needed to supplement the existing stock of official data.

Economic reasons for wanting children predominate among 541 Malaysian adults and 2014 children, followed by happiness, love, and companionship, the latter group especially in several subgroups of young Malaysians identified as demographic innovators. Five empirically constructed value and cost of children indices with known reliability were used to predict variation in the achieved family size of parents as well as the desired family sizes of parents and children. Completeness of family appeared to be the best predictor of achieved family size, whereas intrinsic value of a large family was generally a good predictor of family size preferences.

Seasonal variation in human natality is examined over a period of several decades for an isolated Inuit settlement in the central Canadian Arctic. The results substantiate earlier reports of the existence of a birth season in the first half of the year. The 2-decade period coinciding with the gradual concentration of the regional population into the settlement experienced a temporary disruption of this traditional rhythmic pattern. Family planning has been introduced in the modern period, yet birth seasonality is even more pronounced than during previous decades. Both planned and unplanned births occur predominantly in the first half of the year, indicating the paramount importance of behavioural and social responses to extreme seasonal variation.

This paper examines the accessibility of post-partum sterilization at five hospitals in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Of the women who planned sterilization 60% were sterilized. Services were not equally available to all women. While caesarean sections accounted for an extremely high percentage of deliveries at these hospitals, this type of delivery, and concurrent sterilizations, are not equally available to all women who indicated a desire to be sterilized. Since poor women are less likely to have caesarean deliveries, their access to sterilization is limited.

The use of sterilization as a method of contraception is increasing rapidly throughout the world. This paper reports on sterilization rates for women in Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama in relation to demographic characteristics. Comparisons are made with non-sterilized women using other efficient contraceptive methods.

The sterilization rates range from 0·161 in Colombia to 0·552 in Panama; births averted are calculated as one-quarter in Colombia, one-half in Costa Rica and one in the Dominican Republic and Panama.

The widespread availability of effective means of fertility control in many developed countries has made voluntary childlessness a viable alternative to parenthood. Little attention however has been given to the family planning requirements of those who take this minority decision. Data from Scotland suggest that the voluntarily childless have contrasting needs and that usage of and perspectives on contraceptive techniques, sterilization, and abortion depend primarily upon the extent and basis of individual commitment. It is important that those involved in providing family planning services should be aware of the variations in the childless condition and how these might influence individual behaviour in relation to fertility control.

A sample survey was conducted in South Carolina to determine how income and education relate to hypertension, independently of age, race and sex. The results indicated that there was a significant inverse relationship between income and hypertension for Whites (P < 0·0001), but not for Blacks. There was also a statistically significant inverse relationship between education and hypertension for Whites (P < 0·0001) and for Blacks (P < 0·001).

Information is collected from the literature on the age at which British children were weaned from the breast between 1500 and 1800. The weaning age recommended by ‘professionals’ was compared with that said by contemporaries to be common, and with those found in a sample of 42 children. A significant decrease was found in the length of suckling particularly after 1750; this was possibly related to the availability and social acceptability of artificial feeding, an increase in the incidence of maternal suckling among upper and middle class women, and the effects of industrialization. The reason for weaning was individual to each nursing couple; no significant difference was found between the weaning age of males and females, or between wet nursed and maternally breast-fed infants; the weaning age within families was not significantly different from a sample of unrelated children within the same period. Between 1650 and 1800 the weaning age recommended by medical writers was apparently representative of actual practice.

The estimation of genetic similarity from correspondence of surnames (isonymy) allows investigation of historical population structure. This study uses surname data from seven isolates located along the west coast of Ireland during the 1890s to assess geographic and historic influences on population structure. Observed genetic variation among populations shows a close fit with the expected isolation by distance model, with estimated parameters of isolation and migration being similar to those obtained in other studies of isolated populations. Local genetic variation appears to be due primarily to the size of the local breeding population, with deviations being explained in terms of recent emigration.