The Impact of Migration from Rural Areas on Measures of Fertility in India.

Wendy Brynildsen, Duke University
Sowmya Rajan, Duke University

We use the 2005-2006 National Family and Health Survey of India to examine the impact of women's internal migration on age at first birth and children ever born (CEB). Migration categories include women who remain in same rural area, remain in same urban area, migrate from rural to rural, urban to urban, rural to urban and urban to rural areas. We examined basic differences in age at first birth (aged 25-29) and CEB (aged 45-49) for migration categories using ANOVA. Women who always remain in the same rural area and women who transition from one rural area to another rural area have lower ages at first birth and a higher CEB compared to women in other migration categories. Using multivariate regression, we find that the effect of migration on age at first birth is explained by education and on CEB is greatly attenuated by the inclusion of education and wealth.