Volume 15 - Article 6 | Pages 147–180  

First birth trends in developed countries: Persisting parenthood postponement

By Tomas Frejka, Jean-Paul Sardon

Abstract

Levels and trends of various facets concerning first births are continuously changing. The evidence confirms that the postponement of first births is an ongoing and persisting process which started in western countries among cohorts of the 1940s, but only in the 1960s cohorts in Central and Eastern Europe. The mean age of women having first births is universally rising. Fertility of older women was increasing. The decline in childbearing of young women is robust among the cohorts of the late 1960s and the 1970s; in Southern Europe as well as in central and Eastern Europe the rates of decline have accelerated. Childbearing behavior in the formerly socialist countries is in transition to a different regime.

Author's Affiliation

• Tomas Frejka - Independent researcher, International EMAIL
• Jean-Paul Sardon - Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), France EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Cohort birth order, parity progression ratio and parity distribution trends in developed countries
Volume 16 - Article 11

Overview Chapter 5: Determinants of family formation and childbearing during the societal transition in Central and Eastern Europe
Volume 19 - Article 7

Overview Chapter 3: Birth regulation in Europe: Completing the contraceptive revolution
Volume 19 - Article 5

Overview Chapter 2: Parity distribution and completed family size in Europe: Incipient decline of the two-child family model
Volume 19 - Article 4

Overview Chapter 1: Fertility in Europe: Diverse, delayed and below replacement
Volume 19 - Article 3

Summary and general conclusions: Childbearing Trends and Policies in Europe
Volume 19 - Article 2

Cohort Reproductive Patterns in the Nordic Countries
Volume 5 - Article 5

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