Monograph

Fertlity decline in Turkey: differential patterns by Turkish and Kurdish speaking women

Abstract

Turkey entered into the last phase of its demographic transition since the 1980s, with a wide regional disparity ranging from east to west. Although variation of fertility related indicators by the Turkish and Kurdish speaking groups has been illustrated in the recent studies, few of them have extensively examined underlying social demographic and political factors distinguishing their fertility patterns. This book provides further insights into the specificities of the recent fertility decline in Turkey by looking through childbearing trends and differentials of Turkih and Kurdih women. The study point out a combination of individual socioeconomic and socio-cultural factors is necessary but not sufficient to explain differential fertility behavior. The fertility transition in Turkey can be attributed to both structural changes and a diffusion process of modern parity-specific fertility limitation, via the Turkish language. This study should be especially useful to sociologists and demographers who examines the impact of institutional and individual-level factors on childbearing dynamics in countries that currently experiencing first demographic transition.