Zeitschriftenartikel

Parity specific birth rates for West Germany: an attempt to combine survey data and vital statistics

Abstract

In this paper, we combine vital statistics and survey data to obtain parity specific birth rates for West Germany. Since vital statistics do not provide birth parity information, one is confined to using estimates. The robustness of these estimates is an issue, which is unfortunately only rarely addressed when fertility indicators for (West) Germany are reported. In order to check how reliable our results are, we estimate confidence intervals and compare them to results from survey data and estimations conducted by the German Statistical Office. Although our estimations show a similar trend, the magnitude of some fertility indicators differ substantially from the ones reported in other studies. However, estimations from other studies do not give a consistent picture of German fertility, either.