MPIDR Working Paper

The German Birth Order Register - order-specific data generated from perinatal statistics and statistics on out-of-hospital births 2001-2008

Kreyenfeld, M. R., Scholz, R. D., Peters, F., Wlosnewski, I.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2010-010, 36 pages.
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (February 2010)
Revised March 2010
Open Access

Abstract

Until 2008, Germany’s vital statistics did not include information on the biological order of each birth. This resulted in a dearth of important demographic indicators, such as the mean age at first birth and the level of childlessness. Researchers have tried to fill this gap by generating order-specific birth rates from survey data, and by combining survey data with vital statistics. This paper takes a different approach by using hospital statistics on births to generate birth order-specific fertility rates for the period 2001 to 2008. Hospital statistics include information on births that took place in German hospitals. Out-of-hospital deliveries, which account for about two percent of all births, are not included in the hospital data. In a sensitivity analysis, we show how robust our estimates are to the inclusion of out-of-hospital births. Our general assessment is that the hospital data are a valuable source for generating order-specific fertility rates, regardless of whether out-of-hospital births are included.
Keywords: Germany, fertility
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.