As with several other countries in the Asian and Pacific region, Maldives also has an implicit population policy aimed at reducing fertility. Until recently the country was considered to have high fertility rates for South Asia, although there have been signs of fertility decline since the early 1990s. The total fertility rate of the country, which stood at 6.4 during the early 1990s, declined to 5.7 children per woman in 1995. Recent data from the Population and Housing census of Maldives showed a further drop in the total fertility rate to 2.8 in 2000. While the rapid decline recorded recently has been questioned by policy makers on the grounds of poor data quality, researchers argue that the decline in fertility is genuine and can be attributed to several factors, such as the increased use of contraception, improved schooling opportunities in rural areas and the political endorsement of family planning at the highest level. The primary objective of this paper is to present estimates of fertility obtained directly from the 1995 and 2000 censuses of Maldives. In order to assess the validity of the results from the census, fertility rates are estimated indirectly from other methods, such as the own-children method and the Rele method (data and limitations of those methods are described later). Finally, the P/F ratio method is employed to provide an adjusted estimate of fertility reported in the censuses. (excerpt) - See more at: http://www.popline.org/node/239357#sthash.eR6L2P2j.dpuf