A Study of the Relationship between Crude Birth Rate and Population Density in Xinjiang Uyguhur Autonomous Region of China

Sammanfattning: Recently, the urbanization in China caused much social problem in China, and one of the distinctive features of urbanization is the increasing population density. This thesis aims to discover the relationship between population density and fertility in China by choosing Xinjiang region as an example, other determinants of fertility in Xinjiang region were also examined, such as average income, employment rate, ethnic minority rate and urban population rate. In this thesis, the data was collected from Xinjiang statistical yearbooks the period was from 1996 to 2013. In this thesis, the quantitative method was used, and the models were formed based on the fixed-effect model and random effect model, there was also the OLS model added to compare. In results, it is discovered that there is no significant relationship between population density and crude birth rate, whereas the economic factors GDP per capita has a positive impact on the crude birth rate. The one-child policy generally has no significant impact on the crude birth rate, and there is no notable difference between urban and rural fertility. The employment rate has a positive impact, which contradicts the mainstream theory. The general conclusion is that Chinese fertility has a unique feature compare with other countries, and it needs further research on other regions in China to support this thesis.