FERTILITY IN RURAL AND URBAN BANGLADESH: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

This article uses data from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) on women aged 40-49 to conduct a comparative study of rural and urban completed fertility. Application of the technique of binary logistic regression shows that female education and labour force participation in Model 1 and age at first marriage in Models 1 and 2 are the leading mechanisms in relation to rural and urban fertility. Access to mass media is significant to some extent, followed by religion and spousal age difference. The male spouse's education and having ever used any method of contraception are found to be insignificant. Rural women are more likely to have more children than their urban counterparts.