Answer to Question 1
c
Answer to Question 2
Fertility is the actual level of childbearing for an individual or a population. The level of
fertility in a society is based on biological and social factors. The primary biological
factor affecting fertility in a population is the number of women of childbearing age
(usually between ages 15 and 45). Other biological factors affecting fertility include the
general health and level of nutrition of women of childbearing age. Social factors
influencing the level of fertility include the roles available to women in a society and
values and beliefs about ideal family size. Based on biological capability alone, most
women could produce twenty or more children during their childbearing years.
Fecundity is the term for the potential number of children who could be born if every
woman reproduced at her maximum biological capacity. Fertility rates are not as high
as fecundity rates because people's biological capabilities are limited by social factors
such as practicing voluntary abstinence and refraining from sexual intercourse until an
older age, as well as by contraception, voluntary sterilization, and abortion. Additional
social factors affecting fertility include significant changes in the number of available
partners for sex and/or marriage (e.g., as a result of war), increases in the number of
women of childbearing age in the workforce, and high rates of unemployment. The
most basic measure of fertility is the crude birth ratethe number of live births per
1,000 people in a population in a given year.