Analysis of census data is important to uncover new insights as well as highlight where
improvements in future data collection are required. The study provides an assessment of
the fertility estimates derived from census data in comparison to those derived from the
Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Surveys. Robust methods are used to estimate
fertility levels and to identify the trends in fertility in Zimbabwe. Fertility decline in
Zimbabwe is observed to have started in the early 1980s. The greatest level of decline
occurred between the 1980s and the mid-1990s. In more recent years fertility in
Zimbabwe has stalled at roughly four children per woman. Using projected parity
progression ratios fertility decline has been observed to be in part a result of parity
limitation, as fewer women progress to higher parities. A comparison of the census and
Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey fertility measures show that for the same
cohort of women, the measures of fertility are strongly congruent. While there are
problems with census data, it has been shown that using robust estimation the census
fertility estimates are comparable to those from the Demographic and Health Surveys.