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 cohort fertility in settler South Africa between 1700 and 1900. We find parity rates of approximately seven children per woman until a decline begins starting with women born in the 1850s. We date the start of South Africa’s fertility transition to cohorts born in the 1850s, having children from the 1870s. Both average parity and the timing of the transition are similar to other settler societies suggesting that although the sample suffers from selection it does not bias the parity estimates.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2018-08-17
Language
English
Pages
421-445
Publication/Series
European Review of Economic History
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Topic
- Economic History
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1474-0044