Jeanne Cilliers
Researcher
The Shaping of a Settler Fertility Transition : Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century South African Demographic History Reconsidered
Author
Summary, in English
Using South African Families (SAF), a new database of settler genealogies, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of women’s fertility in settler South Africa between 1700 and 1900. Differences in parity rates acrossgeographic regions suggest couples knew how to limit fertility prior to theglobal onset of the first fertility transition. We date the start of South Africa’s fertility transition to cohorts born in the 1850s, having children from the 1870s. This timing is similar to other settler communities and earlier than many European countries despite somewhat different economic and social circumstances.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2018
Language
English
Publication/Series
Lund Papers in Economic History: Population Economics
Issue
173
Full text
Document type
Working paper
Publisher
Department of Economic History, Lund University
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- South Africa
- fertility
- genealogies
- settler demography
Status
Published