Education, Marriage, and Fertility

Abstract

This article explores the effects of the increasing educational attainment of several cohorts of women born during the first half of the twentieth century on the historical change in their fertility. With data from the 1991 Spanish Census, we focus on the reproductive trajectories of women in these cohorts based on parity progression and marriage patterns. The conclusions point to a clear negative association between education and fertility on one hand and between education and marriage on the other. Both of these relationships prove relevant to understanding changes in fertility and childlessness in the cohorts and time span considered.