The interrelationship of mortality and fertility in rural Bolivia.

This report describes the fertility and child mortality of a rural, high altitude Bolivian Aymara population, and examines the effect of fertility on child mortality in this population. Demographic information was collected from 149 families of school aged children. Levels of completed fertility and child mortality rates were found to be similar to those reported for other high altitude Andean communities, while the sex ratio at birth was found to be lower than those previously reported for the Andes. Family size was found to have little effect on child mortality, and child mortality was found to decrease as birthorder increased. These findings suggest that a large number of children is not a burden to these families. No evidence for maximization of reproduction is found in this population.