Abstract
This paper uses a cross-temporal meta-analysis to summarize information about the ideal number of children, gender composition, and timing of childbirths during the years 1980–2015 in China. This allows a comparison between ideas about the ideal number of children and actual childbearing behavior. The results show that fertility and the ideal number of children both decreased, but that fertility was higher than the ideal number of children before 1990, and that fertility was lower than the ideal number of children thereafter. Gender preference weakened; however, the preference for sons decreased slowly. The timing of childbearing became significantly later over the study period, while the ideal age of childbearing remained relatively stable. The findings provide evidence to aid understanding of the changes in childbearing in China.
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