Original scientific paper
Modern Characteristics of the (Bio)reproduction of the Population of the Croatian Islands
Ivo Nejašmić
; Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Demographic statistical data and the results of research show that a retrograde process is developing on the Croatian islands that is totally opposite to the real and potential values of the examined area. The paper examines the (bio)reproductive characteristics for the island population in the period 1971-1991. The general (female) fertility rate showed an up-down trend. After a brief increase of the rate in the early 1980s, caused by the "echo effect" (a large generation of women born in the compensation period), a reduction occurred in the inter-census period 1981-1991. The level for 1991 amounted to 47.8. The net reproduction rate, as an indicator of the regeneration of the female population was in the entire period below the level for simple reproduction (in 1991 only 0.79 and practically on the same level as the rate for Croatia as a whole, i.e. 0.80). This means that for quite a time now the female population (the key factor of reproduction) has not been regenerating itself − in other words, reproductive depopulation is continuing. Such a situation exists in all the island groups, but the lowest net level is to be found in the population of the Central Dalmatian islands (0.70). The total fertility rate (TFR' = 1.67) shows that renewal of generations has not been secured. This is worst in the group of small islands (1.42). Weakening of the vital potential and the fall of bio-reproductional potential is an essential demographic characteristic of the Croatian islands.
Keywords
fertility; population reproduction; demographic development; islands; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
126623
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1997.
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