SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

5 - Peoples of the MekongIn the Central Highlands, due to recent in-migrations of lowlanders, men actually outnumber women. Also,younger women are increasingly attracted from rural areas to urban jobs in the growing garment industryand in the service sector.Fertility rate. Women in the Mekong Region have traditionally given birth to large numbers of children.Large families have been important to provide labour and to ensure the care of elderly family members.Women have had frequent pregnancies, partly in response to the high death rates of infants and youngchildren. Total fertility rates (TFR) c remain high in Cambodia and Lao PDR, with women in both countriesaveraging 5.1 children. These rates, however, represent major declines from, respectively 5.9 and 6.4 in1993, 18 and reflect changes that are occurring as a result of birth spacing programmes and greater accessto health care.In Thailand and Viet Nam, fertility rates havedropped dramatically to near or below thereplacement level of 2.1 children per family.The most important reason for this change ishigher education levels for women in thesecountries. Other contributing factors includegovernment programmes that encouragesmaller families and increasing economicopportunities for women outside the agriculturalsector.In rural areas of the LMB, fertility rates tendto be higher than in urban areas. In Cambodia,TFR is 5.5 in rural areas, compared with 4.4Overall women head about one quarter of households inthe Lower Mekong Basinin urban areas. 19 In rural areas of northern Lao PDR, TFR exceeds 6.0 in some provinces. 20 Higherfertility rates in rural areas are associated with lower literacy rates and levels of educational attainmentamong rural women. Ethnic minority women and women working in the agricultural sector also tend tohave higher than average fertility rates. 21Age structure and dependency. The population of the LMB is very young. This is due primarily tohigh fertility rates, including a baby boom in Cambodia in the 1980s. More than half the population ofCambodia and Lao PDR is estimated to bebelow the age of 15 years. 22 This produces ahigh age dependency ratio (ADR d ) becauseeach working adult must support otherhousehold members who are too young (ortoo old) to work. In Thailand, for every threepeople of working age, there is one dependentyouth whom they support. 23 In Viet Nam, theratio is one youth for every two working-agepeople. 24 In Cambodia and Lao PDR, theage dependency ratios are well above the1999 average of 0.6 for the East Asia andPacific Region. 25Between 1999-2015, the number of elderly people in theLMB is expected to grow at rates of 2-3 percent per yearcTotal fertility rate is a measure of the number of children born to women of childbearing age.dThe age dependency ratio (ADR) is generally defined as the ratio of youth (0-15 years) and elderly (65 yearsand older) to the number of people of working age (15-65 years).45