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The Prevalence of Childlessness in Cohorts of Older Women
Author(s) -
Rowland D. T.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.1998.tb00219.x
Subject(s) - childlessness , demography , cohort , marital status , census , depression (economics) , population , fertility , medicine , gerontology , sociology , economics , macroeconomics
Book reviews in this article: Objective : To define the immediate causes of childlessness and provide estimates of the percentages of women ‐ in the past and present aged population of Australia ‐ who remained voluntarily or involuntarily childless. Method : The overall prevalence of childlessness in Australian cohorts born since 1851 is estimated as the sum of the effects of never marrying, remaining childless within marriage, and child mortality. Data : The principal data sources were census statistics for various years on marital status and number of children ever born to women. The paper measures childlessness when each birth cohort was aged 45–49; the proportions are expected to be similar at ages 65–69. Results : The proportion of women childless has ranged between 9 and 32 per cent in cohorts born since the 1850s. Married childlessness was predominant among cohorts born between the 1890s and the 1920s, owing to the effects on family building of the two World Wars and the Great Depression. Conclusion : In 1996, cohorts with relatively high levels of childlessness were at advanced ages. Trends in childlessness draw attention to deficits in the family resources of the aged and raise questions about the adequacy of support for vulnerable groups.