Recently, the Kingdom of Lesotho released the results of the Lesotho Fertility Survey (LFS), taken in 1977 as a part of the World Fertility Survey program. Lesotho, formerly known as Basutoland, gained independence in Britain in 1966. The country is slightly larger than the state of Maryland. It is mountainous over much of its territory. A notable feature of the economy is the heavy dependence upon the income of workers employed in the mining industry of South Africa. About 85% of the population is involved in agriculture. This predominantly rural society places much importance on the birth of children. Analysis of birth history data from the survey indicates that Lesotho's total fertility rate in 1977 estimated that women would have an average of about 6 children each during their lifetime. The data also indicated that fertility has probably been constant at that level for some time. The government has adopted an official policy to reduce the birth rate, but population projections suggest that any immediate decrease in the rate of population growth will be difficult. United Nations medium variant projections indicate that Lesotho's rate of population growth will actually increase slightly from the present estimated rate of 2.4% annually to 2.5 since anticipated improving health conditions should lower death rates and offset decreases in the birth rate. With moderate reductions in fertility, UN projections call for an approximate tripling of the country's present 1.4 million people. Marriage is virtually universal in Lesotho. The LFS reported that 2.3 of the sample had indicated they had heard of some contraceptive method, but actual method use was very low. Only about 3.5% of the women reported use of an efficient method; an approximately equal number indicated that withdrawal was their primary method. About 1 in 5 women who want no more children were currently using a method; the figure was 5% for those who wanted to continue childbearing. When asked how many children they desired, even the youngest women gave 5-6 as an answer. Of all children born to the women interviewed, about 20% had died. The country's traditional concepts of childbearing will pose a real challenge to any family planning program.