Latest-Late Fertility? Decline and Resurgence of Late Parenthood Across the Low-Fertility Countries

After decades of fertility postponement, we investigate recent changes in late parenthood across low-fertility countries in the light of observations from the past. We use long series of age-specific fertility rates from the Human Fertility Database (1950-2016) for women, and new data covering the p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population and development review 2020-06, Vol.46 (2), p.219-247
Main Author: Beaujouan, Eva
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
age at birth
Births
Europe
Fertility
Fertility decline
fertility postponement
late fertility
low fertility countries
men and women
Parents & parenting
Postponement
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:After decades of fertility postponement, we investigate recent changes in late parenthood across low-fertility countries in the light of observations from the past. We use long series of age-specific fertility rates from the Human Fertility Database (1950-2016) for women, and new data covering the period 1990-2016 for men. In 1950, the contribution of births at age 40 and over to female fertility rates ranged from 2.5 to 9 percent, but then fell sharply until the 1980s. From the 1990s, however, the prevalence of late first births inaeased rapidly, especially so in countries where it was initially lowest This has produced a late fertility rebound in the last two decades, occurring much faster for women than for men. Comparisons between recent and past extremely late (age 48+) fertility levels confirm that people are now challenging the natural fertility barriers, particularly for a first child.
ISSN:0098-7921
1728-4457
DOI:10.1111/padr.12334