Pourquoi la fecondite est-elle elevee dans les pays anglophones?

Abstract

Why do English-speaking countries have relatively high fertility? The paper examines why English-speaking countries have relatively high levels of fertility despite the fact that their governments do not provide the same levels of family benefits as do France and the Nordic countries. The relative absence of public family supports has led to the development of a range of informal arrangements that support the combination of work and family. While these informal arrangements can be difficult and stressful, their emergence indicates the dedication of couples in these countries to the combination of work and family. More recently, public policy has become more supportive. At the same time, the English-speaking countries are high income, low taxing countries. Parents in these countries are more able to afford the direct costs of children and to pay for services that they may need such as childcare. As evidence of this, couples in these countries are more likely than couples in European countries to have three or more children. The very high fertility rates in New Zealand and the United States are associated with the ethnic composition of these countries. The United States has several other special circumstances that are associated with high fertility such as very early childbearing, a high proportion of unintended births and a substantial sub-population that is very religious. Finally, it seems that the long-term shift to later commencement of childbearing has ended in the English-speaking countries and some now are experiencing a reversal of this trend. Show more