Male Fertility in Latin America: Changing Fertility, Changing Nuptiality

Matheus Menezes dos Santos , Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Laura L. R. Rodriguez Wong, Federal University of Minas Gerais, CEDEPLAR

Male fertility is still understudied subject in demography due to the scarcity of data about. This paper proposes a methodological approach to estimating male fertility from census data and applies it to the censuses of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico between 1970 and 2010. We further break down the change in mean age at fatherhood in two effects: changes in the age pattern of female fertility and changes in the age pattern of nuptiality. The results indicate that male TFR is higher than female TFR but it keeps the same falling trend. The change in the age pattern of nuptiality seems to be an important component of the fall of mean age at fatherhood in Latin America, with relevant difference among the countries. The differences and the similarities among Latin American countries are not only relevant to understand the male fertility transition in the regions, but also to understand the changes in the process of family formation in the last fifty years.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course