The transition from high to low marital fertility: cultural or socioeconomic determinants?

In our analysis we suggest that the transitions in the districts of England and Wales fitted well in a theoretical system that views fertility transitions largely as multiphasic responses to socioeconomic change. This article does not attempt to review approaches to the study of fertility transitions in general, nor is its aim to analyze the fertility transition in England and Wales in particular. Its very limited objective is to review one particular approach to transition research, namely, that which uses macro-level data relating to demographic change in districts, counties, provinces, or similar units to draw conclusions and generalizations concerning marital fertility transitions. We analyze and review the characteristics of the English transition with reference to the Princeton European Fertility Project, focusing especially on two papers based on the major findings of this project. We chose these two papers, despite the fact that the official summary volume of that whole project has recently been published, because the two earlier publications present the generalizations under review here in a more specific and unequivocal style. -Authors