Arbeitsbereich

Fertilität und Wohlbefinden

Auf einen Blick Projekte Publikationen Team

Projekt

Socioeconomic Differentials in Fertility and Family Formation Processes

Julia Hellstrand, Jessica Nisén, Andres Castro, Natalie Nitsche, Mikko Myrskylä, Ewa Batyra; in Zusammenarbeit mit Ben Wilson, Sebastian Klüsener (beide: MPIDR)

Ausführliche Beschreibung

In most developed countries, higher-educated women tend to have fewer children than their lower-educated counterparts. However, the negative educational gradient in fertility varies across socioeconomic contexts and has even vanished in some Nordic countries for recent cohorts. This project examines heterogeneities in socioeconomic differentials in fertility and family formation from a comparative perspective, considering variation across educational levels and fields, partnership contexts, and regional and national settings.

Research has documented substantial subnational variation in the magnitude of educational fertility gradients across Europe using cohort and period perspectives. Smaller gradients are more common in highly developed regions, although variation persists at all levels of development. Methodological advances include the production of Empirical Bayesian cohort fertility rates by educational attainment and the harmonization of large-scale register and survey data across countries.

Recent work extends this perspective to low- and middle-income countries by examining how education relates to the timing of first union and first birth across the full distribution of these events. Results indicate that additional schooling shifts later transitions more strongly than very early family formation, suggesting persistent inequality in early marriage and childbearing despite educational expansion. The project also considers intergenerational dimensions by analyzing how parental separation is associated with children’s educational outcomes across cohorts and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Publikationen

Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist, S.; Jalovaara, M.; Myrskylä, M.:

Parental separation and children’s education - changes over time?

European Journal of Population 41:1, 1–35. (2025)    

Li, Y.; Carlsson, E.; Nisén, J.:

Housing tenure, housing satisfaction, and fertility intentions in the Nordic context of the early 2020s

INVEST working papers 134.2025, Turku. (2025)    

Nisén, J.; Erlandsson, A.; Jalovaara, M.:

Gendered relationship of childbearing with earnings accumulated by midlife in two Nordic welfare states

Journal of Family and Economic Issues 46:3, 685–707. (2025)    

Nisén, J.; Klüsener, S.; Dahlberg, J.; Dommermuth, L.; Jasilioniene, A.; Kreyenfeld, M.; Lappegård, T.; Li, P.; Martikainen, P.; Neels, K.; Riederer, B.; te Riele, S.; Sulak, H.; Szabó, L.; Trimarchi, A.; Viciana, F.; Myrskylä, M.:

Economic conditions, education and parity‐specific fertility: a sub‐national regional study across 15 countries in Europe

Population, Space and Place 31:6, e70074–e70074. (2025)    

Nisén, J.; Tassot, J.; Iacoella, F.; Eibich, P.:

Does early timing of first birth lead to lower earnings in midlife in Britain?

Journal of Family Research 37, 373–394. (2025)    

Batyra, E.; Leone, T.; Myrskylä, M.:

Forecasting of cohort fertility by educational level in countries with limited data availability: the case of Brazil

Population Studies 77:2, 179–195. (2023)    

Nisén, J.; Erlandsson, A.; Jalovaara, M.:

Gendered relationship of childbearing with earnings accumulated by midlife in two Nordic countries

INVEST working papers 75.2023, Turku. (2023)    

Abufhele, A.; Pesando, L. M.; Castro Torres, A. F.:

Parental educational similarity and inequality implications for infant health in Chile: evidence from administrative records, 1990–2015

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 82:100736, 1–14. (2022)    

Hellstrand, J.; Nisén, J.; Myrskylä, M.:

Educational field, economic uncertainty, and fertility decline in Finland in 2010–2019

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2022-022. (2022)    

Ponkilainen, M.; Einiö, E.; Pietiläinen, M.; Myrskylä, M.:

Educational differences in fertility among female same-sex couples

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2022-030. (2022)    

Nisén, J.; Klüsener, S.; Dahlberg, J.; Dommermuth, L.; Jasilioniene, A.; Kreyenfeld, M.; Lappegård, T.; Li, P.; Martikainen, P.; Neels, K.; Riederer, B.; te Riele, S.; Szabó, L.; Trimarchi, A.; Viciana, F.; Myrskylä, M.; Wilson, B.:

Educational differences in cohort fertility across sub-national regions in Europe

European Journal of Population 37:1, 263–295. (2021)    

Nitsche, N.; Brückner, H.:

Late, but not too late? Postponement of first birth among highly educated U.S. women

European Journal of Population 37:2, 371–403. (2021)    

Nitsche, N.; Matysiak, A.; van Bavel, J.; Vignoli, D.:

Educational pairings and fertility across Europe: how do the low educated fare?

Comparative Population Studies 46, 533–554. (2021)    

Nitsche, N.; Trimarchi, A.; Jalovaara, M.:

The power of two: second birth rate differences between couples with homogamous and heterogamous educational pairings

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-029. (2020)    

Wood, J.; Klüsener, S.; Neels, K.; Myrskylä, M.:

Shifting links in the relationship between education and fertility: subnational spatial insights from the Belgian case

Population, Space and Place 26:8, e2342–e2342. (2020)