The total fertility rate in an economy is defined as:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) the average number of live births a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing age.
Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing years, given the fertility rates of a particular period. It is counted per woman, not per couple and not per 1,000 people.
- ✓ (d) The WHO defines TFR as the average number of children a hypothetical group of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they experienced the fertility rates of a given period. NCERT reads a TFR of 1.7 as the average woman having 1.7 children.
- ✗ (a) Births per 1,000 people in a year is the crude birth rate, which is measured against the whole population, not against women.
- ✗ (b) TFR is measured per woman and is not a count of children per couple.
- ✗ (c) Birth rate minus death rate is the natural rate of population growth.
Remember · TFR = average children per woman over her child-bearing years; replacement level is about 2.1, and India's TFR fell to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21).
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 12 · Indian Society, Chapter 2 “bring down their total fertility rates (TFR) to 1.7 each (2016). This means that the average woman in these states produces only 1.7 children”
- WHO Indicator Metadata Registry: Total fertility rate (per woman) ↗ “The average number of children a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates of a given period and if they were not subject to mortality.”
- PIB (Ministry of Health): NFHS-5 Phase-II findings ↗ “The Total Fertility Rates (TFR), an average number of children per womenhas further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·