Laboratory
Demographic Data
At a Glance
Projects
Publications
Team
Project
Human Fertility Database
Conducted by Dmitri A. Jdanov; Aiva Jasilioniene, László Németh, Karolin Kubisch; in Collaboration with Tomáš Sobotka, Kryštof Zeman (both: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austria)
Detailed Description
Data on fertility in industrialized countries are fragmented and not easily comparable across countries, time periods, and cohorts. This applies particularly to parity-specific fertility indicators, and these are crucial for understanding fertility behavior. These limitations are major obstacles to research and policy making related to ongoing changes in fertility patterns and the future prospects for childbearing. The limitations also become more salient over time as more attention is being paid to the issues surrounding low fertility in industrialized countries by policy-makers, the media, and the wider public. Such issues can be addressed properly only when high-quality data on both period and cohort fertility become available for these countries.
The Human Fertility Database (HFD), officially launched in September 2009, is a joint project of the MPIDR and the Vienna Institute of Demography. It fills the gaps in the availability and comparability of fertility data and provides free and user-friendly access to detailed and high-quality data on period and cohort fertility for the international research community and other interested users. The major HFD outputs include period and cohort data on non-order and (when available) order-specific births; unconditional and conditional fertility rates; fertility tables; and selected aggregate indicators, such as total fertility rates, mean ages at childbearing, and parity progression ratios.
The HFD is being continually updated. We extend existing data series by adding the most recent data and by including new countries. However, the database by design is limited to populations with complete birth registration. Following the example of the Human Mortality Database, the HFD guiding principles are comparability, flexibility, accessibility, and reproducibility. The HFD fully adheres to the concept of Open Data.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HFD team established a new data resource: the Short-Term Fertility Fluctuations (STFF) data series. The series complements the HFD by providing the latest data on fertility variation within a calendar year. The STFF includes two types of indicators: crude monthly counts of live births as well as monthly and annual TFRs; and seasonally- and calendar-adjusted monthly birth counts and monthly TFRs. The data are based on official data sources. All aspects of data collection, data processing, and methodology are described in the STFF Methodological Note. The STFF incorporates an online visualization toolkit that enables instant calculation and visual inspection of monthly fertility variations across countries.
The HFD has become an important and valued resource of detailed and best-quality population-level fertility data for developed countries. Currently, it has been cited in more than 800 scientific publications (for a nonexhaustive list of publications, please see www.humanfertility.org/File/GetDocumentFree/Docs/publications.pdf).
Key events related to the project are:
- The first HFD Symposium, held in Rostock November 3–4, 2011.
- An HFD side meeting organized at the PAA Annual Meeting in San Diego (USA) on April 29, 2015.
- The second HFD Symposium, held in Berlin June 23–24, 2016.
- The third HFD Symposium, held in Vienna December 5–7, 2018.
A newly designed website for the HFD was launched in 2022.
Data and Surveys, Demographic Change, Family Behavior, Fertility Development
Publications
Jasilioniene, A.; Jasilionis, D.; Jdanov, D. A.; Myrskylä, M.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-006. (2024)
Sobotka, T.; Zeman, K.; Jasilioniene, A.; Winkler-Dworak, M.; Brzozowska, Z.; Alustiza Galarza, A.; Németh, L.; Jdanov, D. A.:
Population and Development Review, 1–36. (2023)
Sobotka, T.; Jasilioniene, A.; Alustiza Galarza, A.; Zeman, K.; Németh, L.; Jdanov, D. A.:
SocArXiv papers. unpublished. (2021)
Čipin, I.; Grigoriev, O.; Jasilioniene, A.:
Rostock, Vienna. (2018)
Gorlischev, V. P.; Grigoriev, P.; Michalski, A. I.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2018-001. (2018)
Grigoriev, P.; Michalski, A. I.; Gorlischev, V. P.; Jdanov, D. A.; Shkolnikov, V. M.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2018-001. (2018)
Klüsener, S.; Jasilioniene, A.:
Rostock; Vienna. (2018)
Michalski, A. I.; Grigoriev, P.; Gorlischev, V. P.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2018-002. (2018)
Mikhalskii, A. I.; Gorlischev, V. P.; Jdanov, D. A.; Grigoriev, P.:
In: Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference "Application of Information and Communication Technologies" (AICT-2017), 420–424. Moscow: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (2017)
Houle, R.; Kubisch, K.:
Rostock; Vienna. (2016)
Jasilioniene, A.; Sobotka, T.; Jdanov, D. A.; Zeman, K.; Kostova, D.; Andreev, E. M.; Grigoriev, P.; Shkolnikov, V. M.:
International Journal of Epidemiology 45:4, 1077–1078e. (2016)
Jasilioniene, A.; Stankūnienė, V.; Jasilionis, D.:
Rostock; Vienna. (2016)
Kingkade, W. W.; Jasilioniene, A.; Jdanov, D. A.:
Rostock; Vienna. (2016)
Kostova, D.; Grigoriev, P.:
Rostock; Vienna. (2016)
Kreyenfeld, M. R.; Pötzsch, O.; Kubisch, K.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2013-002. (2013)
Shkolnikov, V. M.; Jdanov, D. A.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2012-001. (2012)
Jdanov, D. A.; Nash, E. J.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2011-003. (2011)
Nash, E. J.; Jasilioniene, A.; Andreev, E. M.; Zeman, K.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2011-001. (2011)
Goldstein, J. R.; Sobotka, T.; Jasilioniene, A.:
Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand 7:1, 1–2. (2010)
Nash, E. J.; Jasilioniene, A.; Andreev, E. M.:
MPIDR Technical Report TR-2010-007. (2010)
Jasilioniene, A.; Jdanov, D. A.; Sobotka, T.; Andreev, E. M.; Zeman, K.; Shkolnikov, V. M.; Goldstein, J. R.; Philipov, D.; Rodrígues, G.:
Rostock. (2009)