The limited effect of increasing educational attainment on childlessness trends in twentieth-century Europe, women born 1916–65

Eva Beaujouan, Zuzanna Brzozowska, Krystof Zeman

    Publikation: Wissenschaftliche FachzeitschriftOriginalbeitrag in FachzeitschriftBegutachtung

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    Abstract

    During the twentieth century, trends in childlessness varied strongly across European countries while educational attainment grew continuously across them. Using census and large-scale survey data from 13 European countries, we investigated the relationship between these two factors among women born between 1916 and 1965. Up to the 1940 birth cohort, the share of women childless at age 40+ decreased universally. Afterwards, the trends diverged across countries. The results suggest that the overall trends were related mainly to changing rates of childlessness within educational groups and only marginally to changes in the educational composition of the population. Over time, childlessness levels of the medium-educated and high-educated became closer to those of the low-educated, but the difference in level between the two better educated groups remained stable in Western and Southern Europe and increased slightly in the East.
    OriginalspracheEnglisch
    Seiten (von - bis)275 - 291
    FachzeitschriftPopulation Studies
    Jahrgang70
    Ausgabenummer3
    DOIs
    PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2016

    Österreichische Systematik der Wissenschaftszweige (ÖFOS)

    • 504006 Demographie

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