International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 2(6) June 2013, Pages: 455-462 TI Journals International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences www.tijournals.com ISSN 2306-7276 * Corresponding author. Email address: waleakintunde2004@yahoo.com Religious Roles in Fertility Behaviour among the Residents of Akinyele Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria Mutairu Oyewale Akintunde 1 , Musediq Olufemi Lawal 2 , Olawuwo Simeon 3 1,3 Department of Statistics, The Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Leisure and Tourism Management, Federal College of Wildlife Management, New Bussa, Niger State, Nigeria. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Religion Fertility purposive and random sampling Muslim Christian This paper work on fertility differential among various religions in Akinyele Local Government area of Oyo State aimed at finding the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the studied area. The fertility level was examined, the relationship between the level of fertility and religious belief and the current state of knowledge, attitudes, and practice of family planning programs as it affects different religion. The duo of purposive sampling and simple random sampling methods were used to administer questionnaire. In all two thousand, four hundred questionnaire (2400) were administered out of which only two thousand, one hundred and ninety seven (2,197) were returned successfully. The information was tabulated and the percentage responses were taken, so also, multiple regression analysis chi-square analysis and ANOVA was done by the use of SPSS. It was discovered that over 70 percent of the respondents could neither read nor write and over 80 percent are self-employed. More than 75 percent are of polygamous settings and over 65 percent believed that they should have as many numbers of children as God’s permits. The implication of this study is that Muslims and Traditionalists had highest number of children in the studied area (the two accounting for over 78 percent while Christian accounted for less than 22 percent). Six hypotheses were tested and all alternative hypotheses were accepted, all pointing to the fact that religion is a strong determinant of fertility and other socio-economic variables. © 2013 Int. j. econ. manag. soc. sci. All rights reserved for TI Journals. Introduction Religion has a substantial relevance in the demographic study of socio-economic groups. It dictates a code of life, refers to as system of beliefs, attitudes and practices which individuals share in groups, and through this orientation towards life and death, religion is supposed to affect one's fertility behavior (Chaudhary, 1982). According to Westoff, 'the religious affiliation of the couple connotes a system of values which can affect family via several routes: (a) directly, by imposing sanctions on the practice of birth control or legitimizing the practice of less effective methods only, or (b) indirectly, by indoctrinating its members with a moral and social philosophy of marriage and family which emphasizes the virtues of reproduction" (Westoff, 1959: 117). Literature has shown that biological and behavioural determinants of fertility in Nigeria remain largely unchanged (Akpandara et al, 2011) with low age at marriage (UNPF, 2005, NPC, 2004b, Ihejiamaizu, et al, 1998), low rate of contraceptive usage (PRB, 2007, NPC, 2004a, NPC, 2004b) and high rate of exposure to sexual intercourse at relatively early age (NPC, 2004b, Ihejiamaizu and Etuk, 2001 and NPC, 2000). Nigeria like other developing societies in sub-Saharan Africa has experienced high fertility levels in the last three decades (Ihejiamaizu, 2001, Isiugo-Abanihe, 1996, Lee, 1992). Presently, fertility levels stand at 5.9% (PRB, 2007); high fertility and momentum in the country is attributed to the fertility behaviour of the people (NPC, 2004b) which was largely a response to past unfavourable demographic, economic and political event (Obono, 2003) aggravated by insipid developmental policies. Many explanations on why human fertility varies from one society to another and among different groups or individuals within the same society. Attempts to identity and measure the factors that affect fertility and hence to discriminate among current competing causal hypotheses have not been notably successful. The gap in our basic stock of knowledge is both a source of embarrassment to social scientists and an obstacle to the strategic formulation and tactical evolution of population policies throughout the world. In this paper, attempt shall be made to examine one framework for interpreting reproductive behaviour that in our judgment, holds promise of accounting for certain aspects of fertility and of relating these aspects in a consistent manner to other important forms of household decisions making. Areas of household non-market choice of which fertility is a complex but readily measured example, have recently drawn increased interest from Economists/Demographers, but the field remains in a state of flux. For this economic approach to yield empirically refutable propositions, broad constraints must be imposed on the more general theory, and at the same time, it is unclear which set of constraints least impair the model’s realism. The objective is to restate the central theoretical elements of this approach to the determinants of fertility, explore briefly unsolved problems with schema, and speculate on its usefulness.