Socio-demographic correlates of childlessness: an analysis of the 1971 Canadian census
Grindstaff, C.F.; Balakrishnan, T.R.; Ebanks, G.E.
Canadian Journal of Sociology 6(3): 337-351
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0318-6431 PMID: 12312137 DOI: 10.2307/3340238Document Number: 250162
"The purpose of this paper is to examine childless women and the different socio-demographic characteristics associated with this demographic pattern. The study focuses on the proportion of ever-married and currently married women 15 years of age and over who were childless in 1971. The data source is the 1971 Canadian census 1 percent sample tape based on individual files, which yields a total sample of 46,376 women from all across Canada. The major correlations with childlessness among these women are age and marriage duration. The longer (and earlier) a woman is married, the lower the levels of childlessness when obvious demographic factors are controlled." It is found that "ascribed characteristics of ever-married women provide no meaningful associations to childlessness, and this description is applicable to the variables of religion, ethnicity, mother tongue, home language, and place of birth. Achieved characteristics, especially among the younger cohorts of women, are more revealing, and women who have higher family incomes, higher levels of education, who are living in large urban places and are involved in the labor force (among themselves highly correlated variables) generally have higher rates of childlessness. Implications of these findings are discussed."