Postponement and recuperation of Belgian fertility: how are they related to rising female educational attainment?
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Fertility trends in Europe after 1970 are routinely referred to in terms of the postponement of fertility. The shortening of the effective reproductive lifespan and its association with post-materialist values have raised questions as to whether fertility can or will be recuperated. Decomposition of cohort fertility in Belgium by level of education shows that the postponement of fertility after 1970 is closely related to the expansion of education: compared with cohorts born in 1946-1950, 40 to 50 per cent of the difference in cumulated fertility at age 25 in the 1951-1975 birth cohorts is attributable to rising educational levels. Educational differentials also prove relevant with regard to the recuperation of fertility at older ages as the tempo and quantum of order-specific fertility have responded differently to variations in the economic and policy context, depending on the educational level considered. Differential fertility trends by level of education have thus attenuated the relationship between female educational attainment and completed fertility in recent cohorts.
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At equal parity, highly-educated women are most likely to have children in the 30s and early 40s.
“At equal parity, highly-educated women, who not only tend to have the best job conditions but also better gender equality in the household, are most likely to have children in that age range (Berrington & Pattaro, 2014; Neels & De Watcher, 2010; Nicoletti & Tanturri, 2008; Rondinelli et al., 2006).”
From Delayed Fertility as a Driver of Fertility Decline? (2023) · cites this paper as Neels & De Watcher, 2010
Section 4.2 (page unavailable) reports that highly educated Belgian women postpone first births and frequently progress to second births, supporting a later-childbearing pattern. It does not establish that, at equal parity, they are the most likely to give birth in their 30s and early 40s. Section 5 says the study could not test the household gender-equality explanation in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Neels, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Antwerp (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Neels, Karel
- ORCID
- Neels, Karel
- Venue
- Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 77-106
- ISSN
- 1728-4414 (ISSN-L)
- 1728-5305
- OpenAlex
- W2141622572
- Cited by
- 77
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 8.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- de
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Vienna Yearbook of Population Research (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online (Institut für kunst- und musikhistorische Forschungen der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Austrian Biographical Dictionary (Austrian Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
- 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, women's educational attainment, post-materialism, completed fertility, Belgium
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