The Socioeconomic Determinants of Childbearing Intentions: A Macro-Micro European Analysis

Maria Rita Testa, Vienna Institute of Demography

In this paper I investigate the individual and country level socio-economic determinants of child-number and child-timing intentions in Europe. The analysis is based on the Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2006 which contained several questions on childbearing intentions. The results show that at the individual level child-number intentions are correlated with enduring characteristics of individuals, like religiosity and level of education while child-timing intentions are closely associated with more transient characteristics, like enrolment in education or non-marital status. At the cluster level the proportion of high educated people in the country positively influences the child-number and the child-timing intentions independently on whether individuals are childless or have already one child. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita affects negatively the timing of the next intended child and positively the timing of the second intended child.