The birth rate in SA has fallen by 6.8% over the past three years, a sign South African women are taking control over their reproductive functions.A Statistics SA report issued on Thursday showed that 1.08-million children were registered in 2015 as compared to 1.16-million in 2013.This could be a sign of South Africans desiring to have fewer children or the increased use of contraceptives.Dr Mark Collinson, who is senior researcher at the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand, said declining birth rates were normal in a country like SA as women took more control over their reproduction functions."The more women in the workplace and more women educated can in itself be related to a lower birth rate," Collinson said.The decline was a result of modernisation, he said.Statistician-general Pali Lehohla, who presented the findings, said the overall birth rate for the country was declining even in rural areas.The statistical number of children born to each female ...
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