Population Increase and Family Planning in Guatemala

This article presents new demographic data to examine Guatemala's explosive population growth from 1950 to 1969. As a prelude the article synthesizes the published research on the demographic structure of the country from 1930 to 1959. A brief description is given of the country's national family planning program. The demographic data is then broken down by Maya Indian and Ladino, the two ethnic groups comprising the country. Family planning data for each ethnic group are examined and some preliminary policy suggestions are indicated. An appendix contains a demographic profile of each department by ethnic group.