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Jeanne Cilliers . Photo

Jeanne Cilliers

Researcher

Jeanne Cilliers . Photo

The Shaping of a Settler Fertility Transition : Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century South African Demographic History Reconsidered

Author

  • Jeanne Cilliers
  • Martine Mariotti

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

Document type

Working paper

Publisher

Department of Economic History, Lund University

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • South Africa
  • fertility
  • genealogies
  • settler demography

Status

Published