RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND FERTILITY IN LIBERIA

This study examines fertility differentials by religious affiliation i n Liberia, within the context of two competing hypotheses: the charact eristic and particularised theology. Using a subsample of currently ma rried women from the 1986 Liberian Demographic and Health Survey, the study examines the fertility of five religious groups: Catholic, Prote stant, Moslem, traditional, and other women. Overall, the findings are more consistent with the characteristic hypothesis, because the small fertility differentials by religious affiliation are largely accounte d for by differences in the socioeconomic and demographic characterist ics of these women.