Natural growth of the population of Plovdiv, Bulgaria for the period 1895-1995.

A study of the natural growth rate of the population using female cohorts by birth year has been carried out for the first time in our country. The study comprises 14 cohorts. The following characteristics are recorded: birth year, social group, educational level, number of live births, age of marriage, infant mortality rate, proto- and intergenetic intervals. Our report presents the key indicators of natural growth of population in the studied cohorts. A consistent trend of decreasing the number of livebirths is established. In the first studied cohort (1895-1899) the average number of offspring per woman is 3.94, reaching a level of 1.77 in the 1960-1964 cohort. The indicators for natural growth of population exhibit a similar trend. The summary fertility rate in the reference period decreases with more than 2 points--from 4.47 in 1895-1899 to 1.73 in 1960-1964. Likewise, the total reproduction rate goes down from 2.54 to 0.78 for the same period. Considerable changes have occurred in the indicators total period fertility rate and marriage fertility rate of women. For a period of 110 years the former has decreased 3.5 times, the latter--8 times. The drastic drop of the indicators of natural growth of the population is accounted for by an intricate complex of social, economic, psychological and biological factors. The marked aging of the population and the decrease of the percentage of women in active fertility age play a certain role in this process. The ascertained changes in the reproductive behavior and age structure of the female population are factors intensifying the unfavorable trends in the natural growth rate of the population in our country.