Michaela Kreyenfeld and Dirk Konietzka (Eds.) Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences SpringerOpen, 2017. 370 p. $59.99.

Abstract

Childlessness has risen sharply in recent decades in the developed world, drawing the attention of researchers and policymakers. This open-access volume provides an overview of levels and trends and causes and consequences of childlessness in Europe. It is based on the 2nd edition of the book Ein Leben Ohne Kinder published in Germany in 2013 and contains ten new chapters and six updated chapters of its predecessor. The first half of the volume documents long-range trends in childlessness in chapters giving an overview of 30 countries and in-depth analyses of six countries including the United States. Childlessness was common (20 percent or higher) in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, when age at marriage was high and young adults often worked as servants and maids in the households of their employers. Despite rapid changes in social and economic conditions in the early twentieth century, childlessness remained high in cohorts born between 1900 and 1920. This was in part due to the loss of men in World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and the disruption of World War II. In contrast, cohorts born around 1940 had much lower childlessness (close to 10 percent) as their peak childbearing years occurred during the prosperous 1960s. In recent decades childlessness has risen again, a trend that coincides with trends toward later marriage and lower fertility. Over the course of the twentieth century, childlessness exhibits a U shape with levels among the 1970 cohort not unusually high compared with levels at the beginning of the twentieth century. Individual countries can differ substantially from this general pattern, with the highest levels found in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and the lowest levels in Eastern and Southern Europe. The remaining chapters examine determinants and consequences of childlessness. One of the key determinants is level of education: with few exceptions, women with higher education have higher childlessness (and lower fertility). Assisted reproductive technologies are becoming more widely used but availability varies considerably among countries. A notable consequence of childlessness is that women can work without interruption during their adult lives, thus allowing them to earn larger pensions than women who take time off to care for their offspring. Written by leading demographers and sociologists, this collection of papers provides an in-depth assessment of childlessness in Europe. It is strongest on German-speaking central Europe, weakest on Southern and Eastern Europe.