This volume evaluates the methodology, execution, and long-term impact of the World Fertility Survey (WFS), a massive international demographic project conducted between 1973 and 1984. Authors Chris Scott and John G.F. Cleland, both experts in demographic research, provide a comprehensive retrospective on how this project standardized data collection across sixty-one countries. The text examines the logistical challenges of large-scale international surveys and assesses how the resulting data influenced global understanding of fertility patterns and subsequent government policy development.

Experts recognize this volume as a definitive historical record of one of the most significant demographic data collection efforts in the twentieth century. Researchers frequently cite the text for its transparent discussion of the logistical and analytical hurdles inherent in cross-national statistical projects.