Attitudes toward population control in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

This article explores Chilean attitudes toward the national population's size and rate of growth, as indicated by a special survey conducted for this purpose. The survey sample consisted of 1,410 men 20 to 54 years of age in urban Santiago, who were separated into six categories on the basis of their education and socioeconomic status. The subjects were interviewed by 36 students from the University of Chile who utilized a prepared questionnaire including both open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The results clearly indicate that men in the lower socioeconomic categories tended to know less about the population's size and growth than their better-off counterparts. Nevertheless, they more often felt that Chile had «too many» inhabitants, that recent population growth had been rapid, and that this rate of growth should be reduced (Au)