La fécondité légitime dans différents agrosystèmes sociaux en Flandre, 1830-1930

Abstract

Fertility behaviour in rural areas has been perceived as static, backward and uniform. This article analyses changes and variation in marital fertility within two social agro-systems in Flanders. Using longitudinal individual data from population registers, we document the course of the fertility decline in two case studies. Additionally, we use Kaplan Meier estimates to examine the impact of occupation, age at first marriage, urban migration experience and premarital fertility on fertility behaviour within marriage. The analysis shows that these factors had a dissimilar impact in different rural contexts.

Keywords

• social agro-system
• fertility
• demographic change
• life course analysis