Brazil's poorest families show steepest drop in number of children

Over the last ten years, the number of children per family in Brazil fell by 10.7%. However, the decline observed among the country's poorest 20% of the population stands at 15.7%, and the most dramatic reduction was reported for the 20% poorest in the Northeast.

Data were released by the Ministry of Social Development and the Fight Against Hunger and are based on the 2003 and 2013 editions of the National Household Sample Survey (“Pnad”), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The study shows that, in 2003, the average number of children per family in Brazil stood at 1.78. In 2013, this amount slipped to 1.59. Among the poorest 20% of the population, the average went from 2.55 to 2.15 in the same period. Among the poorest 20% in the Northeast, the drop was from 2.73 to 2.01.

Social Development Minister Tereza Campello believes the data dispels the misconception according to which the policy presented by the government's Bolsa Família (Family Allowance) Program encourages poor people to raise the number of children in an attempt to benefit more from the cash transfer initiative.

“Even though the reduction in the number of children per family in Brazil is a consolidated phenomenon in Brazil, people still claim that the poor are having too many children. Where does this information come from? It doesn’t come from anywhere, because it's not information; it's prejudice,” she declared.

Among the arguments adopted by ministry officials to account for the decrease are the requirements that must be met by applicants. “The Bolsa Família [Program] has ensured that participating women pay regular visits to basic healthcare units. They're required to have prenatal check-ups, and children have to see a doctor at least once every semester until they're six years old. Their attendance improves their access to information on contraception and birth control methods.”

In the view of demographer Suzana Cavenaghi, from IBGE's National School of Statistical Sciences, the best indicator for dealing with the country's fertility rate should be the number of children per woman, not family. Under the latter method, she says, only children who live in the same household as their parents are included. The ones who have moved out or those who live in another home are not included.

According to Cavenaghi, studies based on the 2000 and 2010 census, which take into account the number o children per woman, corroborate the downward trend among the poorer portions of the population. The most likely explanation, she argues, is that the access to birth control has increased over the last years, along with the minimum wage and the quality of living conditions.

“We know of women who use Bolsa Família money to buy birth control pills at the drugstore, because they can only get one blister pack from public health centers,” she said. “It's important to promote  discussion on this topic, because, even though birth rates have declined among the poorest, the access and the distribution of birth control methods across the municipalities are still an issue,” she concluded.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira