Number of Children per Woman in Morocco Dropped 71% from 1960s to 2014

Rabat – After peaking to more than seven in the 1960s, the average number of children per woman fell to almost 2.21 in 2014, according to a statement by the High Commission for Planning (HCP).

The HCP revealed the dramatic drop as part of the celebrations of the annual World Population Day on July 11.

The commission figures showed in 2014 that the number of children dropped to 2.01 in urban areas compared with 2.55 in rural areas.

This sharp decline in fertility, which occurred over less than 30 years, took nearly two centuries in France, where fertility rates fell from a little more than six children per woman in the mid-18th century to nearly two children per woman in the 1930s.

The drop in fertility rate is due to a rise in education access among women and the growing use of contraception. The HCP unveiled that the rate of fertile women using contraception was first recorded at about 6 percent in the 1960s, growing to 19 percent in the 1980s, 63 percent in 2004, and 67.4 percent in 2011.