Fertility postponement is largely due to rising educational enrolment
Open accessAbstract
The rise in educational enrolment is often cited as a possible cause of the trend to later childbearing in developed societies but direct evidence of its contribution to the aggregate change in fertility tempo is scarce. We show that rising enrolment, resulting in later ages at the end of education, accounts for a substantial part of the upward shift in the mean age at first birth in the 1980s and 1990s in Britain and in France. The postponement of first birth over that period has two components: a longer average period of enrolment and a post-enrolment component that is also related to educational level. The relationship between rising educational participation and the move to later fertility timing is almost certainly causal. Our findings therefore suggest that fertility tempo change is rooted in macro-economic and structural forces rather than in the cultural domain.
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References 76 · Cited by 313
Research works printed but not linked: 6
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- Authors
- Ní Bhrolcháin, M., & Beaujouan, É.
- Affiliations
- a University of Southampton
- University of Southampton (GB)
- ORCID
- Beaujouan, Éva
- Venue
- Population Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-08-14
- Volume
- 66
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 311-327
- ISSN
- 0032-4728 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-4747
- PMC
- PMC3479627
- OpenAlex
- W2001155830
- Cited by
- 313
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 38.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Population Studies (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/G027153/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Keywords
- fertility postponement, educational enrolment, age at first birth, educational attainment, educational participation, Great Britain, France
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Community Participation, Cross-Sectional Studies, Data Collection, Educational Status, Female, France, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Schools, Students, Time Factors, Reproductive Behavior, Young Adult
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