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Research Article| August 01 1992

A simple measure of fertility control

Barbara A. Anderson;

Barbara A. Anderson

Population Studies Center and Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

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Brian D. Silver

Brian D. Silver

Department of Political Science Michigan State University and Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

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Demography (1992) 29 (3): 343–356.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2061822

Abstract

We describe a simple measure of fertility control: the proportion of all births from the age-specific fertility schedule that occurs among women by age 35. This measure has broad applicability because it does not require information on marital fertility rates. When both the proportion of births by age 35 and the most commonly used measure of fertility control, m, are calculated for a population over time, they are correlated very highly. Because of increasing levels of nonmarital fertility in several developed countries, measures of fertility control that are based on marital fertility are less appropriate now than in the past.

Total Fertility Rate, Marital Fertility, Fertility Control, Natural Fertility, Early Twenty

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© Population Association of America 1992

1992

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Stockholm

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National Central Bureau of Statistics

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Blayo, Chantal (

1987

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,

7

,

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–

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Breckenridge, Mary B. (

1983

).

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.

New York

:

Academic Press

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1988

).

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. In Hohn, Charlotte, Linke, Wilfried, & Mackensen, Rainer (Eds.),

Demographie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

(pp.

93

–

121

).

Wiesbaden

:

Boldt-Verlag

.

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1987

).

Trends in Fertility, Family Size Preferences, and Family Planning Practice: Taiwan

.

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,

18

,

320

–

37

. 10.2307/1966599

Coale, Ansley J. (

1971

).

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.

Population Studies

,

25

,

193

–

214

. 10.2307/2173210

Coale, Ansley J., Anderson, Barbara A., & Harm, Erna (

1979

).

Human Fertility in Russia since the Nineteenth Century

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Coale, Ansley J., & Trussell, T. James (

1974

).

Model Fertility Schedules

.

Population Index

,

40

,

185

–

258

. 10.2307/2733910

Coale, Ansley J. (

1975

).

Erratum

.

Population Index

,

41

,

572

–

572

. 10.2307/2734617

Coale, Ansley J. (

1978

).

Technical Note: Finding the Two Parameters That Specify a Model Schedule of Marital Fertility

.

Population Index

,

44

,

203

–

11

. 10.2307/2735537

David, Paul A., & Sanderson, Warren C. (

1988

).

Measuring Marital Fertility Control with CPA

.

Population Index

,

54

,

691

–

713

. 10.2307/3645101

Henry, Louis (

1961

).

Some Data on Natural Fertility

.

Eugenics Quarterly

,

8

,

81

–

91

.

Knodel, John E. (

1977

).

Family Limitation and the Fertility Transition: Evidence from the Age Patterns of Fertility in Europe and Asia

.

Population Studies

,

31

,

219

–

49

. 10.2307/2173916

Knodel, John E. (

1988

).

Demographic Behavior in the Past: A Study of Fourteen German Village Populations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

.

Cambridge, UK

:

Cambridge University Press

.

Knodel, John E. and N. Iskandar. 1962. “An Empirical Study of Certain Aspects of the Demographic Transition in Relation to European Countries.” Unpublished manuscript, Office of Population Research, Princeton University.

Leridon, Henri (

1990

).

Extra-Marital Cohabitation and Fertility

.

Population Studies

,

44

,

469

–

87

. 10.1080/0032472031000144856

Page, Hilary J. (

1977

).

Patterns Underlying Fertility Schedules: A Decomposition by Both Age and Marriage Duration

.

Population Studies

,

31

,

85

–

106

. 10.2307/2173490

Trussell, T. James. 1974. “Selected Applications of Model Fertility Schedules. “Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Princeton University.

Trussell, T. James (

1979

).

Natural Fertility: Measurement and Use in Fertility Models

. In Leridon, Henri, & Menken, Jane (Eds.),

Natural Fertility

(pp.

29

–

64

).

Liège

:

ORDINA

.

Fertility of American Women: June 1990

. (

1991

).

Washington, D.C.

:

U.S. Government Printing Office

.

Weir, David R. 1982. “Fertility Transition in Rural France, 1740-1829.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.

Wrigley, E. A. (

1966

).

Family Limitation in Pre-Industrial England

.

Economic History Review

,

19

,

82

–

109

. 10.1111/j.1468-0289.1966.tb00962.x

Xie, Yu, & Efron, Ellen (

1991

).

Revising the Coale-Trussell Method for Analyzing Age-Specific Marital Fertility Schedules

.

Ann Arbor

:

Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

.