The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Understanding third and fourth births in Britain: What role do increased immigration and multiple partnerships play?

Understanding third and fourth births in Britain: What role do increased immigration and multiple partnerships play?
Understanding third and fourth births in Britain: What role do increased immigration and multiple partnerships play?
The proportion of UK families with three or more children is high in European perspective. Commentators often assume that high rates of progression to third, fourth and higher order births result from the higher fertility of women who migrated to the UK from regions of the world where large families are common. Less attention has focused on the role of serial partnering where repartnered couples cement their commitment with a ‘shared child’. This paper provides new empirical evidence as to the relative importance of increased international migration and increased experience of multiple partnerships in fostering
higher order births among British women now aged 45+ who were born 1940-1969. We conclude that migration from high fertility regions, and the experience of multiple partnerships are both associated with progression to third and fourth birth. However, the likelihood of going on to have a third or fourth birth has remained similar across these birth cohorts for women who were born in the UK (to UK-born parents), and those who have only been married once, suggesting that additional factors encourage large families in the UK.
Completed family size, Parity progression, Third birth, Fourth birth, Multi-partner fertility, Fertility of immigrants
83
ESRC Centre for Population Change
Berrington, Ann
bd0fc093-310d-4236-8126-ca0c7eb9ddde
Stone, Juliet
e90cfda9-64e9-4619-8a16-911312a0a965
Mcgowan, Teresa
4524e894-04de-4822-8508-f4b966e12ae2
Berrington, Ann
bd0fc093-310d-4236-8126-ca0c7eb9ddde
Stone, Juliet
e90cfda9-64e9-4619-8a16-911312a0a965
Mcgowan, Teresa
4524e894-04de-4822-8508-f4b966e12ae2

Berrington, Ann and Stone, Juliet , Mcgowan, Teresa (ed.) (2017) Understanding third and fourth births in Britain: What role do increased immigration and multiple partnerships play? (CPC working papers, 83) Southampton. ESRC Centre for Population Change 32pp.

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

The proportion of UK families with three or more children is high in European perspective. Commentators often assume that high rates of progression to third, fourth and higher order births result from the higher fertility of women who migrated to the UK from regions of the world where large families are common. Less attention has focused on the role of serial partnering where repartnered couples cement their commitment with a ‘shared child’. This paper provides new empirical evidence as to the relative importance of increased international migration and increased experience of multiple partnerships in fostering
higher order births among British women now aged 45+ who were born 1940-1969. We conclude that migration from high fertility regions, and the experience of multiple partnerships are both associated with progression to third and fourth birth. However, the likelihood of going on to have a third or fourth birth has remained similar across these birth cohorts for women who were born in the UK (to UK-born parents), and those who have only been married once, suggesting that additional factors encourage large families in the UK.

Text
CPC_WP83_Understanding_Third_and_Fourth_Births
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 10 March 2017
Keywords: Completed family size, Parity progression, Third birth, Fourth birth, Multi-partner fertility, Fertility of immigrants
Organisations: Social Statistics & Demography, Centre for Population Change

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 407831
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/407831
PURE UUID: 2d65d2aa-e2f0-409c-bdea-e9644bd3635d
ORCID for Ann Berrington: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1683-6668
ORCID for Teresa Mcgowan: ORCID iD orcid.org/0009-0002-9231-3743

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 26 Apr 2017 01:15
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:43

Export record

Contributors

Author: Ann Berrington ORCID iD
Author: Juliet Stone
Editor: Teresa Mcgowan ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×