In the course of social and economic development of nations, demographic transition also takes place. In most of the countries in Europe and in North America transition from high to low population growth has already happened. In developing countries like India, the explosive phase of population growth is still on. This is mainly because of the gap between the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) and Crude Death Rate (CDR). While in recent years, death rates have fallen dramatically due to the improvement in the health care facilities etc. the fall in birth rates have been more gradual. Rapid population growth has often acted as a drag on developing countries in their efforts to improve the quality of life of their people. This has resulted in large sections of people suffering from the lack of basic facilities like food, nutrition, water supply, shelter, heath care, education, etc. Such factors in turn lead to Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) remaining high. In such a scenario, achieving early population stabilization remain a very important policy objective.

In India both the CBR and CDR have been falling over the years. In recent years, the rate of decline in birth rate has accentuated indicating that the country is entering the rapid fertility decline phase of demographic transition. The National Population Policy 2000 envisages reaching the population replacement level Total Fertility Rate (TFR) 2.1 by 2010 for the country as a whole. However, there are significant inter-State variations in respect of all these parameters. In view of the importance of vital statistics like CBR, CDR, IMR and TFR, the NCP is bringing out this publication giving time series data on them from 1971 onwards for wider accessibility, with the hope that the same will be useful for policy makers, administrators, academicians and all students of demography.

(Mrs. Krishna Singh)
Member Secretary