On the Concentration of Childbearing in China, 1955-1981

Lutz, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7975-8145 (1988). On the Concentration of Childbearing in China, 1955-1981. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-88-010

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Abstract

Based on period parity progression ratios derived from the one-per-thousand fertility survey by Feeney and Yu (1987) completed parity distributions implied by period fertility are calculated for the years 1959-1981. Concentration analysis of these distributions using Lorenz curves and the proportion of women that had half the children was almost invariant over time (around 33%-35%) despite the dramatic fertility decline since the mid 1960s. This is in sharp contrast to a great number of other countries where the fertility transition has been accompanied by sharply increasing concentration. The very egalitarian way in which fertility declined in the Chinese population seems to be a unique case in world history.

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