With the succesful national family planning program and rapid socio-economic advancement since 1962, the contraceptive prevalence rate has risen from 9 percent in 1964 to 79 persent in 1991, with the corresponding total fertility rate(TFR) going from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1988 which is considerably below the replacement fertility rate. The main purpose of this study is therefore, to identify the structural and causal factors that contributed to the fall in fertility over the last three decades, in an effort to formulate future population policy directions and strategies.
The discussions and analyeses presented in this paper indicate the predominant role played by families in providing both financial and emotional support to the elderly in Asia. As represented by their high labor force participation rates by international standards, however, a substantial proportion of old Asians support themselves through employment, mostly in agriculture or other industries with low productivity. On the other hand, the availability of resources through the public support system in still severely limited in most Asian countries. There are a number of indications, however, that as a consequence of fertility and mortality declines, coupled with rapid industrialization and urbanization, family size and strucure have already been shifting in many Asian countries, so that the pattern of support systems, both personal and public, has been changing pronouncedly in recent years.