The European Fertility Project
Introduction and Overview
The European Fertility Project had two objectives:
* To create a quantitative record of the European fertility
transition - the decline of 50% or more in the number of children
the average woman bears. This profound demographic change, and the
social changes associated with it, occurred within the past two
centuries in almost all of the several hundred provinces of
Europe, and
* To determine the social and economic circumstances that prevailed
when the modern decline in fertility began in the hope of
elucidating the causal mechanisms of the fertility transition.
To accomplish the two objectives, two sets of measures were required,
one to describe demographic characteristics (primarily marriage and
fertility) and one to describe social and economic circumstances. The
demographic measures had to be such that they could be calculated
easily using the often limited census and vital resistration data
available. To this end, a series of standard measures was developed
which compared the fertility experience of the populations of the
provinces of Europe to that of the Hutterites, a religious community
residing in the western United States and Canada. The Hutterite women
had the highest recorded levels of natural fertility known at that
date.
The OPR archive contains the following data that is freely available
to researchers:
* Standard demographic measures collected for 1229 provinces and
smaller districts in Europe at various points in time from the
late eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century.
* Socioeconomic data collected for some of the European countries
that were included in the project.
* The original Hutterite data used to establish the standard
fertility measures.
Key References
The Princeton University Press published eight books, including a
summary volume, in a series devoted to the Princeton European
Fertility Project. These are:
1. Coale, Ansley J.; Watkins, Susan Cotts [editors]. The Decline of
Fertility in Europe: the Revised Proceedings of a Conference on
the Princeton European Fertility Project. Princeton University
Press, 1986.
2. Coale, Ansley J.; Anderson, Barbara; Harm, Erna. Human Fertility
in Russia since the 19th Century. Princeton University Press,
1979.
3. Knodel, John E. The Decline of Fertility in Germany, 1871-1939.
Princeton University Press, 1974.
4. Lesthaeghe, Ron J. The Decline of Belgian Fertility, 1800-1970.
Princeton University Press, 1977.
5. Livi Bacci, Massimo. A Century of Portuguese Fertility. Princeton
University Press, 1971.
6. Livi Bacci, Massimo. A History of Italian Fertility during the
Last Two Centuries.
7. Teitelbaum, Michael S. The British Fertility Decline: Demographic
Transition in the Crucible of the Industrial Revolution.
Princeton University Press, 1984.
8. Van der Walle The Female Population of France in the Nineteenth
Century Princeton University Press, 1974.
In addition, the following articles summarize results for some of the
other countries:
1. Demeny, Paul. "Early Fertility Decline in Austria-Hungary: a
Lesson in Demographic Transition." In Population and Social
Change, D.V. Glass and R. Revelle (eds.) New York, Crane, Russak
and Co., Inc., 1972.
2. Forrest, Jaqueline D. Fertility Decline in Austria, 1880-1910.
Doctoral Dissertation, Princeton University, 1975.
3. Livi Bacci, Massimo. "Fertility and Nuptiality Changes in Spain
from the Late XVIII to the Early XX Century." In Population
Studies, vol. 22, nos. 1 and 2. 1968.
4. Matthiessen, Poul C. "Some Reflections on the Historical and
Recent Fertility Decline in Denmark". In Scandanavian Population
Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 1984.
5. Mosk, Carl. "Rural-Urban Differentials in Swedish Fertility
1880-1960." Working Paper no. 123, Dept. of Economics, University
of California at Berkeley. 1978.
6. Siampos, George S. and Valaoras, Vas G. "Long-Term Fertility
Trends in Greece." Paper delivered at the International Population
Conference, London. 1969.
7. Van der Walle, Francine. "Education and the Demographic Transition
in Switzerland." Population and Development Review, vol. 6, no. 3.
1980.
If you have comments about the archive, please contact:
Barbara Vaughan
bvaughan@opr.princeton.edu