Fertility trends and prospects in Australia and other industrialised countries

The end of an affair? Geography and fertility in late post-transitional societies

A common theme in the writings of population geographers with a fertility interest has been a concern with the convergence of interregional fertility differentials. It is now clear, however, that the widespread achievement in western societies of below-replacement fertility has resulted in a dramatic diminution of most forms of differential fertility, whether sectoral or spatial. The question of "what remains for the spatial analyst working in the traditional ecological mode?" must therefore be asked. An analysis of small-area fertility differentials in NSW in 1986 suggests (a) that most of the variability in local marital and total fertility is not statistically significant, and (b) that even if this problem is ignored, traditional ecological analysis has only trivial 'explanatory' power. While complete spatial uniformity is unlikely ever to be achieved, it is argued that the intrasocietal convergence of reproductive norms and behavior has proceeded so far that conventional geographic approaches to the analysis of fertility are unlikely any longer to be, if they ever were, fruitful

Birthplace differentials in the age-specific fertility of Australian women

The author examines differentials in age-specific fertility by place of birth among Australian women. The data are from one percent public-use samples of both persons and households files of the 1981 census. "This paper reports estimates of the general fertility rates, completed family sizes and age-specific fertility rates for a selection of birthplace and regional groups." It is determined that, to a large extent, the fertility patterns of the 1970s apply for the 1980s