The Decline of Belgian Fertility, 1800-1970

ISBN: 9780691616186 出版年：2015 页码：283 Lesthaeghe, Ron J Princeton University Press

Fertility in belgium declined early and remained low compared with that in other european countries. For this reason, and because of the nation's heterogeneity, study of its demographic transition illuminates the relationship between fertility behavior and socioeconomic development. Professor lesthaeghe first describes the belgian experience in a way that permits direct comparison with that of other european nations. He then tests the several explanatory hypotheses for the european fertility decline against his data. Belgium's heterogeneity in the nineteenth-century and in the first half of the twentieth was economic, social, and cultural. Some areas of the country underwent industrialization as early as 1800-1830, while others shifted away from agriculture and artisanal modes of production only between 1880 and 1910.