Cognition-driven demographic transition
The concept of demographic transition is a century old, but there is still no consensus about its drivers. Wolfgang Lutz highlights a recent reassessment of the theory, which adds cognition … Read more
Fertility and reproduction
Relative to the production of children, sometimes with the intent of evaluating the impact on the growth rate of a population.
Educational expansion and completed family size in low fertility countries
Completed family size has declined in many high-income countries among the post baby boom cohorts. Ester Lazzari, Ryohei Mogi and Vladimir Canudas-Romo find that educational expansion is not the main … Read more
Increasing childlessness driven by higher female education in India
While still low, childlessness in India is on the rise. Trends in childlessness are linked to the opposing factors of poverty and opportunity-driven causes of childlessness, which Koyel Sarkar and … Read more
Unpacking the mortality-fertility link in Malawi: the role of unintended fertility
Current explanations on the link between mortality and fertility imply that mortality exposure increases fertility desires. Conversely, Emily Smith-Greenaway, Sara Yeatman, and Abdallah Chilungo find that, in Malawi, increased mortality … Read more
International migration from Africa to France and contraception use
An original multi-sited analysis of migration (from selected sub-Saharan African countries to France) and contraceptive use reveals that migrant women align more closely with native French women than women in … Read more
Changing attitudes may explain the decline in US birth rates since 2007
The US birth rate has fallen since the 2007 Great Recession, with no signs of reversing. This decline has occurred among women of different age subgroups, education levels, races and … Read more
Can policies halt the fertility decline?
Family-friendly policies can raise fertility and explain at least part of fertility differences across countries, say Janna Bergsvik, Agnes Fauske, and Rannveig Kaldager Hart. Countries that have thus far provided … Read more
The contribution of assisted reproduction in the Australian context of delayed childbearing
Growing numbers of couples are having children later in life. Australia is no exception and, as Ester Lazzari, Edith Gray and Georgina Chambers show, a key contributor to this rising … Read more
The effect of migration on the fertility of Chinese women in the USA
In the years between 1975 and 2005, migrants from China to the US were more likely to have a second and third birth than non-migrant Chinese. Wanli Nie and Pau … Read more
Fertility decline in Jordan resumes after nearly 15 years of stall
Caroline Krafft, Elizabeth Kula and Maia Sieverding show that a long period of stall in the total fertility rate in Jordan has recently ended. Yet data sources disagree on the … Read more
Unintended and sooner-than-intended childbearing in Eastern and Western Europe
Examining two waves of a panel survey, Zuzanna Brzozowska, Isabella Buber-Ennser and Bernhard Riederer find evidence that women and men in post-socialist countries more often have a child they planned … Read more
Late mothers and late fathers have a first birth with younger partners
Individual characteristics of late parents have been extensively studied in demographic literature, but less is known about the parental couple. As Marie-Caroline Compans shows, looking at fathers and mothers separately, … Read more
Average length of life spent childless. Cross-sectionally speaking
In addition to the commonly used fertility measures, Ryohei Mogi, Jessica Nisén, and Vladimir Canudas-Romo suggest an alternative approach to the study of first birth behaviour, focusing on how long women … Read more
Missing boys in sub-Saharan Africa due to high rates of foetal loss
The ratio of males to females at birth is consistently lower in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions of the world. Anne Morse and Nancy Luke suggest that this pattern may be … Read more
Pleasure and fidelity: Italian millennials and sex
Sexual intercourse is starting earlier than before among Italian adolescents, whose behaviour is converging towards the norms of their European peers. As noted by Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna and Daniele Vignoli, … Read more
Accelerating fertility decline through education and family planning
Daphne H. Liu and Adrian E. Raftery find that increasing women’s educational attainment and contraceptive prevalence can have an accelerating effect on fertility decline in high-fertility countries, with a larger … Read more
Trends in age at menarche in low- and middle-income countries
Understanding the timing and determinants of age at menarche is key to determining potential linkages between onset of puberty and health outcomes from a lifecourse perspective. Tiziana Leone and Laura … Read more
Religion as a moderating factor in the education-fertility relationship
Female education is often linked to lower fertility levels and higher rates of childlessness. However, this relationship does not necessarily hold for all population groups. In this study, Nitzan Peri-Rotem … Read more
Internet: a tool for promoting contraceptive uptake in sub-Saharan African countries
The Internet is a time-saving and cost-effective modern technology to enact general healthcare programs. Veronica Toffolutti, Hai Ma, Giulia Menichelli, Ester Berlot, Letizia Mencarini and Arnstein Aassve argue that it … Read more
Education and sexually transmitted infections among Malawian adolescents
Barbara S. Mensch, Monica Grant and Erica Soler-Hampejsek estimate the effect of enrolment, grade attainment, and skills on herpes and HIV among Malawian adolescents. Grade attained is significantly associated with … Read more
Accounting for diffusion, broader family planning program effects found in Nigeria
Few investigators examine program diffusion because they lack data from outside the intervention areas. Using data collected from state-level surveys, David Guilkey, Lisa Calhoun and Ilene Speizer demonstrate the spread of … Read more
Fertility inequality can slow down global poverty reduction in developing countries
Debates about global poverty often omit demographic factors. Frank-Borge Wietzke tries to fill this gap, and documents a significant effect of fertility on poverty. This influence works in large part … Read more
Migrants’ fertility in Italy: a comparison between origin and destination
It is rarely possible to compare stayers in an origin country, migrants from that country and non-migrants in the destination country.In the case of Italy, however, Roberto Impicciatore, Giuseppe Gabrielli … Read more
Breaking down the increase in non-marital births in Finland
Low-educated persons are especially likely to have their children outside marriage in Finland. While the proportion of people with low education has declined sharply in most countries in recent decades, … Read more
Son preference and within-household bargaining position of Pakistani women
Rashid Javed and Mazhar Mughal analyze the effects of the pervasive phenomenon of son preference on Pakistani women’s participation in household decision-making. They find that women with at least one … Read more
Is the traditional gender-specialised division of labour still associated with higher fertility?
In Great Britain, compared to 20 years ago, the traditional gender division of labour is no longer benefiting fertility, note Muzhi Zhou and Man-Yee Kan. Nowadays, couples with more children … Read more
Breaking down the decline in fertility and births in China
Marriage and childbearing postponement have contributed significantly to China’s fertility decline, and will continue to do so in the future. With the fall in the number of women of childbearing … Read more
In Australia fertility is falling only for low educated women
From 2006 to 2016, fertility in Australia remained constant for women with high education while it fell sharply for women with low education. As in the Nordic countries, Peter McDonald … Read more
Have conditions under which women undergo abortion improved around the world?
Agnès Guillaume and Clémentine Rossier review the evidence on abortion in the world since 1990. Few countries have liberalized their laws since then, and regressive movements are frequent. The diffusion … Read more
Another reason why the fertility-contraceptive relationship has weakened*
The fertility-contraceptive relationship has weakened in recent years, meaning that greater contraceptive prevalence is needed to obtain a comparable reduction in fertility. Various explanations have been attempted, including unobserved heterogeneity … Read more
Does broadband Internet affect fertility in Germany?
Using German data, Francesco Billari, Osea Giuntella and Luca Stella test whether broadband Internet influences fertility choices in a low-fertility setting. They find positive effects of high-speed Internet on the … Read more
Longer and shifted reproductive lives amongst adolescent mothers
Adolescent mothers are atypical not only at the start of their reproductive career, but also in its following stages, which are characterized by a higher intensity but slower tempo, notes … Read more
Where, in India, is hospital birth safer for babies than home birth?
Sustainable Development Goal 3 aims to reduce global neonatal mortality (NNM) to 12 deaths per 1,000 births by 2030. Reducing NNM in India is critical to this goal because it … Read more
Persistence and reversals in Nordic fertility
Many studies find that highly educated women have few children and high level of childlessness, but as Marika Jalovaara and colleagues show, the patterns in the Nordic countries have changed … Read more
Education disruptions in the 1980s contributed to the stalled fertility decline in Africa around 2000
Masked by time, educational disruptions of the 1980s help explain why steady fertility declines came to a surprising halt in the 2000s in ten sub-Saharan African countries. The findings, according … Read more
The rural-urban fertility gradient in the global South
Fertility changes in urban versus rural areas of the global South matter for world population dynamics. However, no patterned regularity over time has yet been observed. Mathias Lerch re-assesses long-term … Read more
The political responsibility for sexual and reproductive health and rights
Political representatives are routinely accused of not following up on promises. They get less criticism for not speaking on citizen rights. In the case of sexual and reproductive health and … Read more
Fertility preferences and reproductive outcomes in the developing world
The implementation of fertility desires through contraception is imperfect, resulting in unplanned births and induced abortions. The highest unplanned pregnancy rates (over two pregnancies during a woman’s lifetime) are observed … Read more
Adolescent contraceptive use and its effects on fertility
Adolescent reproductive health is part of internationally agreed development goals but unmarried adolescents are often left out of the picture despite higher contraceptive demand and prevalence in this group.Sánchez-Páez and … Read more
Fertility decisions in Poland: looking beyond national boundaries
Researchers have often assumed that only circumstances within national borders influence fertility decisions. In an integrated Europe, however, people may know about and compare conditions across countries.At least in the … Read more
Birth spacing and long-term health and mortality
A large body of previous work has suggested that both short and long birth intervals are associated with poor birth outcomes such as low birth weight and preterm birth, as … Read more
Child loss in Finland: does it induce divorce or additional fertility?
Together with Fjalar Finnäs and Mikael Rostila, Jan Saarela shows that in Finland the death of a minor child has only a modest influence on the parental divorce risk, whereas … Read more
Increasing longevity may counterbalance the negative effects of reproductive aging
Previous research has indicated that being born to older parents is detrimental for offspring longevity. However, the secular trend of increasing longevity may moderate or even reverse any potential negative … Read more
Advanced maternal age and low birth weight
The negative association between advanced maternal age and low birth weight has become progressively weaker over time in the UK (between 1958-2001). This pattern, as Alice Goisis explains, is partly … Read more
Sexual and reproductive health in Argentina: a right for everyone?
Mortality from sexually transmitted diseases has been declining too slowly and unevenly in Argentina, compromising the right to sexual and reproductive health with equal opportunities. This is confirmed by Eleonora Rojas … Read more
U.S. teen mothers’ smoking risk in adulthood
After following about one thousand U.S. teen mothers into young adulthood, Stefanie Mollborn, Juhee Woo, and Richard Rogers, found that these women are 2.5 times as likely as other women … Read more
Effects of first birth postponement and assisted reproductive technology on completed fertility
Two forces with a contrasting impact on fertility have typically been overestimated in both scientific writing and the popular press. A marked postponement of fertility (by four years of age) … Read more
Relationship stability is important for abortion decisions in Finland
In a recent study (Väisänen 2017), I examined how women make decisions to terminate a pregnancy within the wider context of their lives – including the state and quality of … Read more
30 years of experience of the two-child policy in Yicheng, China
More and more countries have been adopting population policies to increase birth rates, in order to deal with the growing challenges of aging (United Nations 2013). Following the recent trend, … Read more
The pace of fertility decline in Sub-Saharan Africa
Global social changes that diffuse across the world from country to country often proceed most quickly in those places that start last. Change in the pioneer regions is delayed by … Read more
Parental leave uptake among migrant and native mothers in Belgium
Family policies such as parental leave schemes increasingly support the work-family balance. Although labour force participation has increased in recent decades among mothers in majority populations, maternal employment levels and … Read more
Half the world’s population reaching below replacement fertility
According to the most recent UN estimates (United Nations 2017), almost one half of the world’s population lives in countries with below replacement fertility (BRF), i.e. with a total fertility … Read more
Women’s schooling, child mortality, and fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa
Over time, women’s educational attainment in sub-Saharan Africa has been increasing (Barro and Lee, 2013), while infant and child mortality have been decreasing (United Nations, 2015). Both changes have contributed … Read more
The Icelandic Saga. Fertility in the midst of delayed family formation
In European demography, Iceland has been an outlier until recently, with a fertility rate well above that of most countries on the continent. Between 1982 and 2014, the Icelandic total … Read more
Fertility in the time of economic crisis
When uncertain about the stability of their present or future earnings or jobs, individuals postpone life-changing decisions. Scientific research confirms conventional wisdom and shows that the Great Recession that started … Read more
Persistent high fertility in rural Africa
The fertility transition, defined as a change from high and natural fertility (in a range of five to nine children per woman) to low and controlled fertility (down to two … Read more
Surrogacy: a multi-faceted phenomenon
Although still rare among assisted reproductive technologies (ART)¹, surrogacy is a very controversial subject: some consider it as a new way to overcome infertility,others see it as a new reproductive … Read more
Recent trends in premarital fertility in sub-Saharan Africa
Age at first marriage has been rising throughout sub-Saharan Africa for more than twenty-five years. The median age at first marriage has increased by an average of 1-2 years across … Read more
Recent fertility changes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the third most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the countries with the highest fertility in the world, at 6.6 … Read more
Past fertility and living alone in later life in Spain
The prevalence of living alone during later life varies widely across developed countries but everywhere its recent growth has been remarkable, even in societies with traditionally strong family ties. Fertility … Read more
First birth postponement and fertility in Europe
The postponement of first childbirth has been occurring in most European countries for some decades now. In public and media discussion, delayed childbearing is often rather glibly associated with the … Read more
Will international adoption be replaced by surrogacy?
Until the 1960s and 1970s, infecund (sterile) Western couples who desired a child but could not have one of their own could usually adopt a child in their home country. … Read more
Does birth spacing matter for long-term outcomes?
In a study recently published in the journal Demography, my co-author Martin Kolk and I examined whether the length of spacing between births is related to long-term cognitive, educational, and … Read more
Eradicating induced abortion? Lessons from 20th Century France
In France, for two decades – roughly from the late 1930s to the late 1950s – induced abortion was not only prohibited, it was well and truly the target of … Read more
Childlessness in Europe
High levels of childlessness may seem typical of individualized modern societies. However, the phenomenon has been widespread throughout human history. From the Early Modern Period, marriage and childbearing were strictly … Read more
Demography vs ethnography (or Understanding AIDS in Malawi)
Daniel Scott Smith, a historical demographer, said it well: demography has all the ingredients of the best novels, sex and death, but they hide the pleasure of the former under … Read more
What stops parents from having a second child?
Parents of one child are commonly confronted by the first child’s persistent pleas for a little brother or sister. However, they might be skeptical about satisfying their child’s request because … Read more
China after the one-child policy: parents bereaved of their only child
In 1980, China launched its national one-child policy, in response to both a huge concern about the prospects of rapid population growth impacting on resources and a desire to increase … Read more
Fertility in Western Europe: the role of religion
The religious landscape in Western Europe is characterised by contrasting trends; while attendance rates at religious services have declined dramatically, over half of the population in this region still identify … Read more
Son preference as a new twist in China’s low fertility
China is now facing the challenge of low fertility. Its total fertility rate first fell below replacement level in the early 1990s, and had dropped to only 1.18 children per … Read more
Adolescent fertility in Latin America and the Caribbean
Up until the 1970s, the Latin American and Caribbean region stood out for its high levels of fertility. Decline was rapid in subsequent years, but adolescent fertility in the region … Read more
Fertility transition in India: sub-regional evidence
Population stabilization in India is of obvious global significance. According to the latest census, India’s population was 1,210 million in 2011, accounting for 17 percent of the global population; if … Read more
Surprenante fécondité maghrébine
Au début des années 1970, la fécondité restait très élevée en Tunisie et au Maroc (6,5 enfants par femme) malgré les programmes de planning familial mis en œuvre au milieu … Read more