A Comparative Perspective on Male Fertility in Eleven High-Income Countries

Christian Dudel, Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research
Sebastian Klüsener, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Male fertility has received little attention in the literature. One reason for this is that in birth register data information on the father is frequently missing for a substantial number of births. This paper presents comparative male fertility data for ten European countries and the United States. For all countries we use register data and a consistent methodology to deal with missing age records for fathers. Our preliminary results show that the TFR of males roughly follows the trends of the female TFR, but can be both higher and lower. The mean age at childbirth is about three years higher for males than for females across countries. In recent years the average age difference between fathers and mothers has been increasing in some countries, while it decreased in others.

Presented in Session 65: Fertility Trends and Prospects