Abstract:
The central issue in this study is the identification of the major factor that will aid the effective control of the population growth in Nigeria. It aimed at ascertainingthe trend in age-at-first marriage as well as the impact of the trend on fertilityperformance in Nigeria. The findings are from a swvey of three generations of evermarriedpersons, fiom four communities, in Enugu State. One thousand, two hundredpersons, made up of ever-married persons, their parents and grandparents of the samesex, all living within Enugu state, were selected for the study using the multi-stagesampling method. Two social science instruments of data collection were used.These include the questionnaire, which constituted the main instrument and oral interview .The analysis of the data showed that there is a change in age-at-kt marriage,from low tn high. rll?p younger generation of ever-mied persons had higher manage-at-first marriage than the older generations. Fertility 1- also declined fiom highmean fertility ~unong the older generation to low mean fertility among the youngergeneration. Analysis treed in the entire population showed that those who married early had higher fertility ilia1 iit~st~: ' rmi&c~d hter did. Finally, the mean interval observed between births by mothers are on the decline from 2.8 years among the third generation of ever-rnarried mothers, to 2.3 years and 1 .X years among the second and first generations of ever-married mothers respectively. Qualitative data showed that the UCornplete-Child birth-Quick (CCBQ) syndrome influences the younger generat ion, which generally married later. This is held responsible for the decline in the mean birth intervals observed by the younger generations of mothers. This is particularly evident among the more educated mothers.
