Demography and social economy, 2019, 2(36):23-38
doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/dse2019.02.023
UDC 314.146
JEL CLASSIFICATION: J13

S.Yи. Aksyonova
PhD in Economics, Leading scientific worker
Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
01032, Ukraine, Kyiv, Taras Shevchenko Blvd., 60
E-mail: Svitlana_Aksyonova@yahoo.com
ORCID 0000-0003-0516-9078

THE RELATION OF THE MEAN AGE OF WOMEN AT CHILDBEARING AND FERTILITY RATE
Section: DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: Demographers express different points of view on how postponement of childbirth at older age of women affects fertility rate in the country. The purpose of this paper is to find out the character of relation between the mean age of women at childbearing and fertility rate in Ukraine in the last half century and comparison with the peculiarities of such relationship in developed European countries. The study used the statistical data on period and cohort fertility from the International Database of Human Fertility Database. The use of graphical method allowed defining four stages (phases) of the relationship between the mean age at childbearing and fertility rate. These stages are distinguished and investigated in European countries where the statistical data are sufficient to trace the dynamics of fertility indicators in a relatively long time period. The similarity of the configurations of the graphs of relation between the mean age of women at childbearing and fertility rate (both the first order, and all birth orders) constructed for different European countries is noted. In the course of the study, it was confirmed that decline of the birth rate is not necessarily caused by postponement of childbirth. It is found that the change in the mean age of women at childbearing can occur during periods of relative stabilization of fertility, and changes in the total fertility rate may not be accompanied by changes in the mean age of motherhood. The article examines the influence of changes in the mean age of women at childbearing on the period fertility rate using tempo-effect. In our opinion, different “scenarios” of the relation of completed cohort fertility changes (in some cases – fertility by age 40) and cohort mean ages at birth by birth order can be explained by different time of onset and different rates of restructuring of individual elements (constituents) of childbearing behavior, which, in turn, was influenced by complex of diverse socio-economic and political factors.
Key words: fertility; motherhood; advanced maternal age, mean age at childbearing, mean age at birth of the first child, period and cohort fertility.
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