Arbeitsbereich

Demografische Daten

Auf einen Blick Projekte Publikationen Team

Projekt

Human Fertility Collection

Geleitet von Dmitri A. Jdanov; Aiva Jasilioniene, Karolin Kubisch, László Németh; in Zusammenarbeit mit Tomáš Sobotka, Kryštof Zeman (beide: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Institute of Demography, Österreich)

Ausführliche Beschreibung

The Human Fertility Collection (HFC) is a joint endeavor of the MPIDR and the Vienna Institute of Demography. It is a companion to the Human Fertility Database (HFD) and includes a range of fertility data that are valuable for fertility research but do not meet all of the HFD quality standards.

The HFD is entirely based on official vital statistics data. Data processing and the calculation of fertility indicators based on these data are performed strictly by using uniform methodology and a set of very rigorous quality checks. The database is limited to countries with well-established statistical systems, and the data included are of high quality.

The HFC, by contrast, publishes fertility data for a greater number of countries, including those where vital statistics are of a lower quality. Unlike the HFD, the HFC relies on readily available fertility rates rather than original birth counts, and it is not limited to continuous time series of data. The data are assembled from various – not necessarily official – data sources: mainly online databases of national statistical offices, statistical and scientific publications, and data collections of individual researchers and research organizations. The HFC also provides long time series of historical data. It thus contains data of different quality levels and from different data sources.

Its geographic coverage is much broader than that of the HFD. Because it includes less developed parts of the world, the comparability and  reliability of HFC data are of a lower standard. Users are thus advised to use caution when determining the suitability of selected data for their research. However, like the HFD data, the HFC data are provided in a uniform format, together with full references to their sources and documentation (typically original publications) when available. The full description of the HFC and the methods used for data harmonization are provided in the HFC Methods Protocol.

The HFC was officially launched in August 2013. Currently, it has period data on age-specific fertility rates, cumulative fertility rates, total fertility rates, and mean ages at birth for all birth orders combined and, when available, by birth order. In 2019, the HFC was expanded to include male fertility data for countries for which such data are available. More fertility dimensions (e.g., region, country of birth, and marital status) and cohort fertility may be added to the HFC in the future.

Enhancing the HFC methodology is the other important aspect of efforts to improve the database. We prioritized the development of a new method for disaggregating abridged fertility data into a fine grid of ages. Currently, the HFC and the HFD use different splitting protocols. While both methods produce reliable fertility estimates, they are not free of limitations. Moreover, despite the differences between the HFD and the HFC, it would be reasonable to rely on a universal splitting protocol that can be applied to both the high-quality data of the HFD and the heterogeneous data of the HFC. The database is updated on a regular basis: We add new data every six months. Updates include new historical data, new countries, and the most recent data for countries already included.

In December 2022, we launched a newly designed website of the HFC.

Publikationen

Grigoriev, P.; Michalski, A. I.; Gorlischev, V. P.; Jdanov, D. A.; Shkolnikov, V. M.:

New methods for estimating detailed fertility schedules from abridged data

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2018-001. (2018)    

Goldstein, J. R.; Sobotka, T.; Jasilioniene, A.:

The end of 'lowest-low' fertility? (with supplementary materials)

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2009-029. (2009)