Are you over 35 and have one child? If you live in southern Europe, know your chances of not having a second child.

Abstract

In past years, the postponement of a first and, therefore, a second childbirth has been a common behaviour among Portuguese (Cunha, 2012; Mendes, 2012). In 2015, the mean age of women at childbirth was 30,9 and the mean age of women at birth of the first child was 29,5 (Eurostat data). The proximity between both these ages suggests that Portuguese women tend to have only one child and later in life. The postponement of fertility projects is also present in other Southern European countries. According to the same source, in Greece, women had their first child (in average) at 30,2 years old, in Spain at 30,7 and in Italy at 30,8. Using the data from the Eurobarometer (2011) and logistic regression models, we focus our study in Southern Europeans’ fertility intentions after age 35, age from which the intention to have a second child may start to be compromised by women’s biological limits.