title: Residential context, migration and fertility in a modern urban society.
abstract: This study examines fertility variation by residential context in Britain. While there is a large literature on fertility trends and determinants in industrialised countries, to date longitudinal research on spatial fertility variation has been restricted to the Nordic countries. We study fertility variation across regions of different sizes, and within urban regions by distinguishing between central cities and suburbs. We use vital statistics and longitudinal data and apply event history analysis. We investigate the extent to which the socio-economic characteristics of couples and selective migrations explain fertility variation between residential contexts, and the extent to which contextual factors potentially play a role. Our analysis shows that fertility levels decline as the size of an urban area increases; within urban regions suburbs have significantly higher fertility levels than city centres. Differences in fertility by residential context persist when we control for the effect of population composition and selective migrations.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, Liverpool L69 7ZT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: hill.kulu@liverpool.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Hill
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kulu
authors.affiliation: Centre for Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Liz.Washbrook@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Washbrook
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001723:Birth Rate; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013383:Suburban Population; D006113:United Kingdom; D014505:Urban Population; D014798:Vital Statistics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event history analysis; Fertility; Migration; Residential context; UK