Women of child bearing age

We are attempting to increase the Parsi population by offering subsidized accommodation and grants for couples to have more children.

I would like to know if anyone has calculated how many women there are of childbearing age currently and what the number is likely to be for the next 10 years.

I read somewhere that 30 percent of the Parsi population is over the age of 50 and 12 percent is adolescent, thus 42 percent is not of child bearing age. Doing some simple (perhaps too simple) calculations shows results that are frightening for our community.

If we take the best estimate of the Parsi population in India to be 70,000 then 29,400 (42 percent) are not of child bearing age, leaving 40,600. If we assume half of these are men this leaves us with 20,300 women of child bearing possibility.

How many of these are over the age of 35-40, how many are career women and do not want children or will not marry, and how many will marry out? What is the number of women left that we are encouraging to have children? And the vital question — how may children will they have to bear to keep the Parsi population from decreasing?

Any brilliant statisticians who can work it out and inform me please?

JEHANGIR SAROSH

London

Co-moderator, European Council of Religious Leaders

jehangirsarosh@gmail.com