FAMILY SIZE
Do you know…
that the average family size is becoming smaller?
The average number of children born to ever-married females had declined from 3.9 for the pre-1950 cohort (age 50 & over) to 1.8 for the 1961-1970 cohort (age 30-39). While 11.6% of the pre-1950 cohort had 1 child or were childless, the corresponding proportion for the 1961-1970 cohort was three times that figure (37.8%).
There was a negative correlation between family size and educational attainment of the mothers (Table 1). Graduate mothers had on average 1.3-1.4 children, while those with below-secondary education had 3.3-3.4 children. Two factors contributed to this phenomenon:
(a) Delayed childbearing of graduate mothers.
The fertility differential between graduate mothers and those with below-secondary education is larger at younger age groups but narrowed with age. This shows both the delayed onset of childbearing of graduate mothers vis-à-vis below-secondary mothers, and the catching up as time progresses.
(b) Termination at smaller family sizes for graduate mothers.
Although there is a catching up process by graduate mothers, the eventual family size (with reference to mothers aged 50 & over) of below-secondary mothers is still much higher than graduate mothers. In 2000, the former stopped at average 4.2 children while the latter stopped at two.
TABLE 1 |
AVERAGE NUMBER OF CHILDREN BORN BY HIGHEST QUALIFICATION ATTAINED AND AGE GROUP OF RESIDENT EVER-MARRIED FEMALES |
|
|
Age Group |
Below
Secondary |
Secondary |
Post
Secondary |
University |
| 1990 |
2000 |
1990 |
2000 |
1990 |
2000 |
1990 |
2000 |
Total |
3.4 |
3.3 |
1.6 |
1.9 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.4 |
1.3 |
Below 30 |
1.2 |
1.3 |
0.9 |
0.9 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
30 – 39 |
2.1 |
2.1 |
1.7 |
1.8 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.4 |
1.3 |
40 – 49 |
3.0 |
2.4 |
2.1 |
2.1 |
2.1 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
1.9 |
50 & Over |
4.8 |
4.2 |
3.0 |
2.5 |
2.8 |
2.3 |
2.5 |
2.2 |
Last updated: 30 Jun 2007
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