Longer time spent in education means starting families later in life
Longer time spent in education means starting families later in life
The most prominent change in childbearing in developed societies in the last few decades is that women are having their first child at a later average age. This briefing paper provides a summary explanation for this widespread but poorly understood demographic trend. The change in the timing of motherhood has been due mainly to a longer time spent in education, but also to life course delays after the end of education. The age at which people complete their education is crucial to the demographic analysis of events in young adulthood. The findings highlight the key role played by structural, as distinct from cultural, factors in the timetable of fertility and family life over the past several decades in developed societies. They also identify educational participation as a potentially useful predictor in forecasting fertility. The research in this briefing paper wasundertaken by Professor Máire Ní Bhrolcháin and Dr Éva Beaujouan and summarises the article ‘Fertility postponement is largely due to rising educational enrolment’ published in Population Studies(Vol.66,no.3) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00324728.2012.697569#
ESRC Centre for Population Change
Ni Bhrolchain, Máire
c9648b58-880e-4296-a173-7241449e0078
Beaujouan, Eva
78e2a0b3-3489-4735-b436-065bda66cede
Davies, Rebecca
3d22f8a6-7085-493c-864f-4cc1bcdebfc5
July 2013
Ni Bhrolchain, Máire
c9648b58-880e-4296-a173-7241449e0078
Beaujouan, Eva
78e2a0b3-3489-4735-b436-065bda66cede
Davies, Rebecca
3d22f8a6-7085-493c-864f-4cc1bcdebfc5
Ni Bhrolchain, Máire and Beaujouan, Eva
,
Davies, Rebecca
(ed.)
(2013)
Longer time spent in education means starting families later in life
(ESRC Centre for Population Change Briefing Papers, 11)
Southampton, GB.
ESRC Centre for Population Change
4pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Project Report)
Abstract
The most prominent change in childbearing in developed societies in the last few decades is that women are having their first child at a later average age. This briefing paper provides a summary explanation for this widespread but poorly understood demographic trend. The change in the timing of motherhood has been due mainly to a longer time spent in education, but also to life course delays after the end of education. The age at which people complete their education is crucial to the demographic analysis of events in young adulthood. The findings highlight the key role played by structural, as distinct from cultural, factors in the timetable of fertility and family life over the past several decades in developed societies. They also identify educational participation as a potentially useful predictor in forecasting fertility. The research in this briefing paper wasundertaken by Professor Máire Ní Bhrolcháin and Dr Éva Beaujouan and summarises the article ‘Fertility postponement is largely due to rising educational enrolment’ published in Population Studies(Vol.66,no.3) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00324728.2012.697569#
Text
BP11_Longer_Time_Spent_In_Education.pdf
- Version of Record
More information
Published date: July 2013
Organisations:
Social Statistics & Demography, Centre for Population Change
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 355030
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/355030
PURE UUID: 1e6e325c-6ed9-4ade-98f8-f789412e7390
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Date deposited: 19 Aug 2013 10:47
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 14:27
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Contributors
Author:
Máire Ni Bhrolchain
Author:
Eva Beaujouan
Editor:
Rebecca Davies
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