DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
VOLUME 34, ARTICLE 20, PAGES 563−586
PUBLISHED 23 MARCH 2016
http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol34/20/
DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2016.34.20

Research Article
Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay
Mathias Nathan
Ignacio Pardo
Wanda Cabella© 2016 Mathias Nathan, Ignacio Pardo & Wanda Cabella.
This open-access work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution NonCommercial License 2.0 Germany, which permits use,
reproduction & distribution in any medium for non-commercial purposes,
provided the original author(s) and source are given credit.
See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/de/Table of Contents
1

Introduction

564

2

Background565

3

Data and measures

568

4
4.1
4.2
4.3

Results
Trends in quantum and tempo of fertility by birth order
Conditional ASFR by birth order in Uruguay
MAB1 and sdMAB1 in Uruguay and selected countries

570
570
574
576

5

Conclusions

579

6

Acknowledgements

581

References

582

Appendix586

Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20
Research Article

Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay
Mathias Nathan1
Ignacio Pardo2
Wanda Cabella3

Abstract
BACKGROUND
The total fertility rate (TFR) in Uruguay fell from 2.5 to 1.9 children per woman
between 1996 and 2011. However, no study to date has examined the decline of the
TFR by observing changes in fertility patterns by birth order.
OBJECTIVE
The main aim of this study is to analyze recent changes in fertility level and timing ofchildbearing by birth order in Uruguay.
METHODSWe estimate unconditional and conditional age- and birth-order-specific fertility rates
for 1996–2011 using data from vital statistics, population census, and national
population estimates. Additionally, three period summary measures of birth-orderspecific fertility quantum are calculated: TFR, PATFR and TFRp*. Timing changes bybirth order are examined with MAB and TMAB, focusing on MAB1 and its standard
deviation and comparing their evolutions in Uruguay with those of selected countries.
RESULTS
Fertility decline fits a parity-specific stopping model with a moderate increase in themean ages of first, second, and third births. The distribution of conditional fertility rates
for first and second births depicts an asymmetric bimodal shape linked to the increasing
heterogeneity of the timing of childbearing. Compared to countries with similar fertility
trends, heterogeneity in the age at first birth in Uruguay is remarkably high.
CONCLUSIONSPrevious studies suggest that heterogeneity in first and second birth timing is related tostructural social inequalities, as women from lower social strata have not significantly
changed the age at which they bear a first child, whereas women of middle to high1

Universidad de la República del Uruguay.
Universidad de la República del Uruguay. E-Mail: ignacio.pardo@cienciassociales.edu.uy.
3
Universidad de la República del Uruguay.
2

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Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguaysocial strata have started to postpone it. The new evidence reinforces the idea that
postponement transition in Uruguay cannot be studied without considering thisconsolidation of social status polarization in fertility timing.

1. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes in the level and timing of fertility in
Uruguay between 1996 and 2011, using period fertility measures by birth order. The
analysis of the evolution of fertility trends by birth order can contribute to theunderstanding of the three main processes in the transition towards a low-fertility
setting: the reduction of higher-order births through parity-specific fertility control, theincrease in the proportion of women who remain childless throughout their reproductive
years, and the postponement of childbearing. Each one of these processes is closely
related to the others and together they typically cause the decline of the conventional
period total fertility rate (TFR).
With some exceptions (Batyra 2015; Miranda-Ribeiro, Rios-Neto, and Ortega
2008; Rios-Neto and Miranda-Ribeiro 2015), the analysis of the recent decline in the
TFR in Latin American countries has relied exclusively on data on births by age of themother. While several European and North American countries have long series of dataon birth counts by both age of the mother and birth order, they are rare to find in Latin
America countries with the exceptions of Chile, Costa Rica, and – recently - Uruguay(Lima et al. 2015; Rosero-Bixby, Castro-Martin, and Martín García 2009).
For this study we constructed the 1996−2011 series of births by age of the motherand birth order by using individual birth registers from the Live Birth Certificate and
the Perinatal Information System of Uruguay, and estimated age- and birth-orderspecific fertility rates and summary measures of timing and quantum of fertility. We
analyzed this set of indicators to demonstrate the extent of family limitation,
childlessness, and postponement in the evolution of fertility for synthetic cohorts during
the recent decline of the period TFR in Uruguay.
Studying fertility by birth order may allow a more rigorous analysis of thedemographic components of recent changes in fertility and the construction of new
measures will allow the comparison of fertility decline in Uruguay with those of other,
mostly European countries.
As seen in several developed countries, a shift in the timing of childbearing can
inflate or deflate the conventional period TFR (Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012). In a
recent work, Pardo and Cabella (2014) estimated tempo-adjusted (TFR*) and tempoand parity-adjusted (TFRp*) total fertility rates for Uruguay for the years 1996−2011.

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

They found that TFR decreased almost entirely by quantum decline, as the tempo effectonly accounted for TFR change through a peak in the 3−4 worst years of the economiccrisis that hit the country between 1998 and 2004 and a mild increase in the last years.
In this paper we also apply tempo-adjusted period fertility indicators to compare theirtrends with the developments in the conventional period TFR, examining to what extent
the two differed over time and how sizeable the recent impact of the tempo effect on
Uruguayan TFR is. Furthermore, the use of the tempo- and parity-adjusted measures ofquantum fertility by birth order would allow breaking down changes in tempo-adjusted
fertility into their birth order components, possibly providing more accurate evidence
on the role of parity-specific fertility declines in the observed changes in period fertility.
The structure of the article is as follows. First, it provides some background on
fertility decline in Latin America and the Caribbean, and specifically Uruguay. Then,the context of extensive socioeconomic and family change within which it has takenplace is discussed. Next, the data and methods used are described and fertility level andtiming by birth order are reported, including conditional age-specific fertility rates bybirth order and summary measures on both dimensions. Finally, mean age at first birthand its standard deviation in Uruguay is compared with those of other selected countries
and some final remarks are made.

2. Background
Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced a rapid decline in fertility level
during the last decades. The TFR of the region is currently approaching subreplacement levels and several countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, andUruguay have already reached a TFR below two children per woman (United Nations2015). Greater availability and accessibility of contraceptive methods, is considered tobe the key factor behind the fertility decline (Guzman et al. 2006). However, teenage
fertility rates remain relatively high, with an average age-specific fertility rate (ASFR)
of 66‰ (ECLAC 2011; Rodríguez 2014). At the same time, the postponement of firstbirths has proven to be an emergent pattern in the region (Esteve et al. 2012). As aresult of several trends, the mean age at birth (MAB) remains close to 27 years, at asimilar level to that registered in 1990 (Cabella and Pardo 2014). In many countries,
lack of proper and extensive data does not allow researchers to dig deeper into thesetrends.
Uruguay has particular traits that distinguish it from the rest of the region. It is asmall, middle-income country with a population of nearly 3.4 million. It has peculiar
characteristics within the developing world, such as a high literacy rate and relatively
low income inequality as shown by its Gini coefficient (0.4), which is significantly

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565Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

lower than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean (0.5) (ECLAC 2014). The
almost complete lack of indigenous people and the high historical level of urbanization
also distinguish the country from the rest of Latin American countries: in 2014 the rural
population was around 5% (United Nations 2014).
Its early demographic transition is also atypical of the region. The low level of
Uruguayan fertility has been a distinctive feature over the last sixty years (Chackiel
2004; Guzmán et al. 2006). More precisely, Uruguay’s long-term fertility decline showsa pattern displaying traits of both European and Latin American countries, though
overall more similar to the former (Figure 1). By the mid-20th century, Uruguayan
women had less than three children on average, while the average in Latin American
was six. By 1970, fertility had remained stable for a long time (TFR = 2.8–3.0 children
per woman); it then decreased to 2.5 in the mid-1980s. No significant changes took
place for the next ten years. Between 1996 and 2011 the TFR in Uruguay experienced aremarkable decline, reaching 1.9 children per woman (INE 2014).
Uruguay has been experiencing significant family change over the last thirty years,
which has become particularly marked since the beginning of the 1990s. The marriage
rate halved between the end of the 1980s and the first decade of the 2000s; consensual
unions increased in an unprecedented manner (four in five couples under the age of 30
choose this form of partnership, as compared to 1 in 10 in 1984); out-of-wedlock births
grew from one fifth of the total to 70% over the same period; and divorces andseparations became more frequent (Cabella 2009). These are some of the reasons why
the Uruguayan population seems to be moving towards the so-called ‘Second
Demographic Transition’ (SDT), even though some of the most important SDT
indicators are only observed in the upper and middle strata (Cabella 2009; Ciganda
2008; Fernandez, Fostik, and Varela 2012). The recent decline of the TFR in Uruguay
can be described as an extensive process, affecting women from all social backgrounds(Varela et al. 2014), which is accompanied by an increasing heterogeneity in the timingof fertility and union formation.

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Figure 1:

Period TFR in Uruguay and selected regions and countries,
1950−2015

Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision.

While younger cohorts of women with less formal education and fromdisadvantaged backgrounds did not experience any postponement in their age at firstbirth, those with more education have been increasingly delaying their entry intomotherhood (Fostik 2014; Fernandez, Fostik, and Varela 2012; Nathan 2013; Videgain
2006). A recent study that compared the median age at first birth of women born in1955 with those born in 1975 showed that the gap between lower and higher
educational attainment groups increased from less than 6 to almost 12 years (Nathan2015). The persistence of high rates of teenage fertility is a critical part of the
explanation. Even though these rates have decreased over the last two decades they arestill as high as the rates of the 1960s and 1970s, when the TFR in Uruguay was nearly
three children per woman (Varela, Fostik, and Pollero 2008). This pattern of a muchslower decline in teenage fertility rates than in total fertility has also been found inseveral other Latin America countries (Rodriguez and Cavenaghi 2013).

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567Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in UruguayThis marked difference in reproductive behavior is linked to a set of social changes
in Uruguayan society. Perhaps the most important is the process of social fragmentation
triggered by the crisis of a welfare regime that promoted social integration through thestate (Rama 1987). The deterioration of this “hyperintegrated” society, an increasingly
segmented labor market, and the growing inability to retain disadvantaged young
people in school, has led to differentiated trajectories of youth upon reaching adult life
(Cardozo and Iervolino 2009; Ciganda 2008; Filardo 2015; Videgain 2006).

3. Data and measures
Annual series of births by age of mother and birth order between 1996 and 2011 werecompiled using microdata provided by the Ministry of Public Health and the National
Institute of Statistics of Uruguay. We worked with births records from the Live BirthCertificate System between 1996 and 2007. Due to the increasing proportion of births
registered without information on mother’s parity in 2008−2011, we linked the recordsof all the children born in those years to the Perinatal Information System database.4
Female population exposures between 1996 and 2011 – denominators for age andbirth-order-specific fertility rates – were computed using official mid-year population
estimates by age and sex, provided by the National Statistics Institute of Uruguay, 2013
Revision. The relative age and parity distribution of women was first estimated for thestarting year (1996) using population census data, and extrapolated for every
subsequent year (1997−2011) by using the reconstructed age- and order-specificfertility rates. Our calculations were based on those documented in the Methods
Protocol for the Human Fertility Database (Jasilioniene et al. 2012). To check theaccuracy of this procedure we compared the proportion of women by age and parity in2011 as a result of the extrapolation method with data from the 2011 population
census.5 As shown in Figure A-1, the extrapolation method provides a relative
distribution of women by age and parity that is consistent with data from the 2011
census. The largest differences were observed between the ages of 20 and 25, mostly inproportion to the number of women with parity 0, which should not significantly affectour results.

4

A subsequent step to compute birth order information was to retrieve birth history data of the mother for agiven number of cases where the mother had had two or more children between 2003 and 2011 (based on
previous or subsequent birth records and information about the number of previous pregnancies). Finally, data
was tabulated by year of occurrence for ages 14 to 50+ and birth orders 1 to 4+, and weighted using theunder-coverage values published by the National Institute of Statistics (see INE 2014).
5
In the Annex, we provide a graphical assessment of this procedure, based on a figure used by Castro and
Zeman (2014). Census data was adjusted to report the results for January 1st, 2011.

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Unconditional and conditional age- and birth-order-specific fertility rates between
1996 and 2011 were estimated. The conditional fertility rates by age and birth ordermi (x,t) were computed from the number of annual births from women of age x and orderi in year t divided by the number of women of age x and parity i-1 estimated for midyear t. The following summary indicators were then computed, using period fertility
tables, for each order and for all orders combined:♦♦

Parity- and age-adjusted total fertility rate (PATFRi), a summary measure that canbe described as the total fertility rate derived from conditional rates that control forchanges in the age and parity composition of women.
Table mean age at birth (TMABi), the version of the mean age at birth that relieson the age distribution of the fertility table number of births.

We compare PATFR and TMAB with conventional summary measures TFR and
MAB, also computed for the period. The former are parity-adjusted indicators andtherefore provide information of the quantum and tempo of fertility without
compositional distortions. However, they do not control for tempo distortions(Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012; Kohler and Ortega 2002).
In fact, both TFR and PATFR, and its components by birth order, are affected byannual changes in the mean age at birth. Thus, we introduce another measure, TFRp*,
to describe potential tempo distortions in the results section. TFRp* uses fertility ratesof the first kind with births of each order treated as separate non-repeatable events,6adjusting also for distortions that come from the changing parity distribution of womenof reproductive age. It does not include all women aged x, as in the cases of TFR, but
women aged x who have a parity j, given j < i (Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012). The
PATFR (Parity-Age Total Fertility Rate), an indicator developed by Rallu andToulemon (1994), as well as the adjusted version, PATFR*, provided by Kohler andOrtega (2002), include denominators where the exposed population for each age x is
composed by women of age x and parity i-1. The adjustment variant needs a more
complex computation, involving the change in the mean age at birth and also its
variance. Bongaarts and Sobotka (2012) demonstrated that this adjusted version
performs poorly as compared to TFRp*, in terms of its usefulness as a proxy of thecohort-completed fertility rate (especially for higher orders)7. This is the reason why wechoose TFRp* to measure period fertility controlling for both tempo and parity effects.

6“Any recurrent event may be resolved into a series of non-recurrent events, which can be analyzed
separately” Bongaarts and Feeney (2006: 2).
7
This can be explained by the computing of TFRp*, which involves independent calculations for each birthorder, while in PATFR* those calculations are linked through the use of a fertility table.

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Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

At the same time, Bongaarts and Feeney (2006) proved that TMAB1 and MAB1
can show different levels, as tempo distortions produce an upward bias in the TMAB1(derived from conditional fertility rates) when the MAB1 of a specific birth order isincreasing. We analyze if this is the case for Uruguayan TMAB1 and MAB1, andsubsequent birth orders. For comparative purposes, the conventional mean age at firstbirth (MAB1) was used. It is available for several countries and across a long span ofyears in the Human Fertility Database/Collection. The standard deviation in the mean
age at first birth (sdMAB1) was also used, in this case to examine the level of fertility
dispersion by age in Uruguay and other countries.

4. Results
4.1 Trends in quantum and tempo of fertility by birth orderFigure 2 presents the evolution of the three summary measures of period fertility
quantum, TFR, PATFR, and TFRp*, between 1996 and 2011. TFR and PATFR show avery similar evolution: total fertility decreased from 2.5 to 1.9 children per woman.
TRFp* departs from TFR and PATFR in several years, showing that tempo effects
played a role during certain periods in the decline of the TFR in Uruguay8. Between
2002 and 2004, both TFR and PATFR may be deflated due to a short period of
postponement of fertility, likely to have been fueled by the extensive economic crisis
suffered by the country in those years. Mild tempo effects are also displayed from 2007
to 2010, where TFRp* values remained above TFR and PATFR. In the absence ofcomposition and tempo effects the decline of the total fertility in Uruguay would havebeen less intense, reaching an average of 2.0 children per woman in 2010 instead of the
1.9 observed with the TFR.

8

In the case of Uruguay, the performance of the TFRp* does not show its usual stability. However, its
performance is similar to that of countries such as Bulgaria and Estonia, which during the 1990s underwent
significant changes in the timing of childbearing within only a few years (Bongaarts and Sobotka 2012).

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Figure 2:

TFR, PATFR, and TFRp*, Uruguay 1996−2011

3.00

2.50

Children per woman

2.00

1.50

1.00

0.50

0.00
1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Year
TFR

PATFR

TFRp*

Source: Authors’ calculations based on Live-Birth Certificate and Perinatal Information System (Ministry of Public Health-Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay), age-parity weights from 1996 national census and mid-year population estimates (Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay 2013 revision).

As shown in Figure 3, TFR and PATFR exhibit different trends in birth-orderspecific fertility, in spite of showing similar levels when all birth orders are considered
combined. For instance, the average number of births per woman in PATFR1 andPATFR2 is higher than in TFR1 and TFR2 in the period considered, but PATFR4+ islower than TFR4+. Both composition and tempo effects account for lower values of
TFR1 and TFR2, as seen with the evolution of TFRp* for 1st and 2nd birth orders. Thereis little difference between the evolution of PATFR and TFRp* for first births, and bothpresent almost no changes in their levels. Similar trends are also displayed by PATFR2
and TFRp*2, although the latter presents two bulges, in 2002 and 2003, and2008−2010. Likewise, TFRp*3 and TFRp*4+ show specific peaks in those years,
especially in 2004.

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Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

Figure 3:

TFR, PATFR, and TFRp* by birth order, Uruguay 1996−2011

1.20

1.00

Children per woman

0.80

0.60

0.40

0.20

0.00
1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Year
TFR1

TFR2

TFR3

TFR4+

PATFR1PATFR2PATFR3

PATFR4+TFRp*1TFRp*2

TFRp*3

TFRp*4+

Source: Authors’ calculations based on Live-Birth Certificate and Perinatal Information System (Ministry of Public Health-Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay), age-parity weights from 1996 national census and mid-year population estimates (Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay 2013 revision).

Figure 4 shows that women in Uruguay are delaying childbearing. MAB increasedin birth orders 1 to 3, especially in the last years. These changes, however, occurred at aslow pace, particularly for first births. Between 1996 and 2011, MAB1 increased just
one year (23.7 to 24.7) and remained lower than that observed in countries with low
fertility (see Figure 6 ).
Bongaarts and Feeney (2006) pointed out that TMAB1 values tend to be higher
than MAB1 when MAB1 is increasing due to tempo distortions. Our results show that
this inflating effect can also be observed - and tends to be more intense - in subsequentbirth orders.

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Figure 4:

Mean age at birth (MAB) and table mean age at birth (TMAB) bybirth order, Uruguay 1996−2011

34.00

32.00

Mean age at birth

30.00

28.00

26.00

24.00

22.00
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Year
MAB1

MAB2

MAB3

MAB4+

TMAB1

TMAB2

TMAB3

TMAB4+

Source: Authors’ calculations based on Live-Birth Certificate and Perinatal Information System (Ministry of Public Health-Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay), age-parity weights from 1996 national census and mid-year population estimates (Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay 2013 revision).

All things considered, it is clear that fertility decline in Uruguay between 1996 and2011 was largely driven by the lower fertility rates of order 3 and 4+ (Table 1). In fact,
the decrease in fertility of those birth orders accounts for as much as 70% (TFR) or 80%(PATFR and TFRp*) of the total fertility decrease. The contribution of birth order 2
was smaller, close to 18%. As shown in Table 1, when controlled by parity composition
and tempo effects, fertility decline in first births is negligible. In other words, fertility
decline was linked to a parity-specific stopping model with a moderate ‘deflating’ effectas a result of changes in the composition of female exposure and age at first and second
births.

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Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

Table 1:

TFR, PATFR, and TFRp* by birth order, absolute change, andrelative contribution to total fertility decline,
Uruguay 1996 and 2011
Birth order

1996
TFR

PATFR

TFRp*

1

2

3

4+

Total

0.88

0.68

0.41

0.54

2.51

2011

0.80

0.57

0.26

0.27

1.90

Absolute change

‒0.09

‒0.10

‒0.15

‒0.27

‒0.61

Relative contrib.

14%

17%

25%

44%

100%

1996

0.89

0.71

0.40

0.53

2.52

2011

0.86

0.60

0.25

0.18

1.90

Absolute change

‒0.02

‒0.11

‒0.14

‒0.34

‒0.62

Relative contrib.

4%

18%

23%

55%

100%

1996

0.89

0.71

0.43

0.40

2.43

2010

0.90

0.64

0.28

0.22

2.04

Absolute change

0.01

‒0.07

‒0.15

‒0.18

‒0.39

Relative contrib.

-2%

18%

38%

46%

100%

Source: Authors’ calculations based on Live-Birth Certificate and Perinatal Information System (Ministry of Public Health-Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay), age-parity weights from 1996 national census and mid-year population estimates (Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay 2013 revision).

4.2 Conditional ASFR by birth order in Uruguay
Conditional age-specific fertility rates provide a more complete account of theevolution of fertility. Firstly, if we consider all birth orders combined, these rates showthat fertility levels have decreased in all years and for almost all reproductive ages
(Figure 2a). Nevertheless, the shape of the age schedule remains almost unchanged,with a plateau that extends from ages 22 to 34. This unusual picture becomes more
accentuated over time. In a context of fertility decline of orders 3 and 4+, we would not
expect this extended plateau to be an expression of uniform fertility rates across theentire age range. Instead, it may show an aggregate effect of different trends by birthorder and age, which balance each other out. Therefore we plotted conditional ASFR bybirth order to get a more complete impression of order-specific trends.
Changes in conditional age-specific fertility rates for first births (Figure 5b)
encompassed the consolidation of an asymmetric bimodal shape across the period, inwhich the first peak remains stable at age 20 and the second increases from ages 29 to
32. Conditional ASFR for second births depicts a more tapered bimodal curve (Figure574

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 205c), which disappears when plotting ASFR for third births (Figure 5d). This increasing
heterogeneity of reproductive behavior is driven by two different trends: firstly, thepersistence of high teenage fertility rates, and secondly, a growing number of women
delaying their entry into motherhood.
Results for conditional age-specific fertility rates for first births (m1(x)) areconsistent with previous research in Uruguay from a cohort approach that showed thesocial status polarization in the age at first childbirth (Nathan 2015 and 2013; Videgain
2006).
Figure 5a−5d:Age-specific fertility rates (all birth orders combined) andconditional age-specific fertility rates for first, second, and third
birth orders (three-age moving average),
Uruguay 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011
Birth order 1

0.180

0.180

0.160

0.160

0.140

0.140

0.120

0.120

0.100

0.100

m(x)

f(x)

All birth orders combined

0.080

0.080

0.060

0.060

0.040

0.040

0.020

0.020

0.000

0.000

15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49

15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49

Age

Age
Birth order 3
0.180
0.160

0.180
0.160
0.140
0.120
0.100
0.080
0.060
0.040
0.020
0.000

0.140
0.120
m(x)

m(x)

Birth order 2

0.100
0.080
0.060
0.040
0.020

1517 1921 23 2527 2931 33 3537 3941 4345 47 49

0.000
15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49

Age
1996
2006

2001
2011

1996
2006

Age

2001
2011

Source: Authors’ calculations based on Live-Birth Certificate and Perinatal Information System (Ministry of Public Health-Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay), age-parity weights from 1996 national census, and mid-year population estimates (Office of
National Statistics of Uruguay 2013 revision).

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575Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

4.3 MAB1 and sdMAB1 in Uruguay and selected countries
Looking for patterns in the shape of the ASFR distribution is certainly helpful toachieve a thorough description of fertility trends, but it is also necessary to use
standardized measures to depict the extent to which the Uruguayan fertility schedule
differs from that of other countries. In order to do so, we compared the MAB1 and its
standard deviation for Uruguay with those of selected countries of Latin America andthe Caribbean, Europe, and North America (Chile, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Portugal,
Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and USA). Besides using the MAB1 to compare the extent of
the postponement of first births, we use its standard deviation to analyze dispersion,
which could be important, considering the bimodal pattern commented on in theprevious section.
The lowest MAB1 available in each country was selected to depict the evolution
over the following 15 years, the same time-span considered in the analysis of the
Uruguayan data (1996−2011). Table 2 shows the year of the initial data point in eachcountry. In general, the selected countries also show a similar TFR at the beginning of
the period (not shown).9 Nowadays, those countries tend to have much higher MAB1
values. For instance, the OECD average is currently 28 years10.
The lowest value of the MAB1 in the years of available data for each country
extends from ages 22.2 (USA in 1963) to 24.8 (Spain in 1979). Uruguay has anintermediary value of 23.7 years (1996) (Table 2). More recent initial values tend to behigher, especially in European countries, where the delay in first births began sooner
than other regions. The increase in the MAB1 of Uruguay is comparatively low, both interms of absolute increase and proportional change (Table 3 and Figure 6).

9Every country shows a TFR between 1.8 and 2.5, except for the USA, which has higher values.
OECD Family Database: Age of mothers at childbirth. http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/SF_2_3_Age_
mothers_childbirth.pdf.
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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Table 2:

Year of lowest MAB1 in available period (Uruguay and selected
countries)
Country

MAB1

Year

USA

22.24

1963

Hungary

22.41

1976

Serbia

22.54

1971

Chile

23.22

1995

Denmark

23.48

1968

Uruguay

23.66

1996

Portugal

23.90

1983

Sweden

24.22

1974

Italy

24.65

1975

Spain

24.81

1979

Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from the Human Fertility Database/Collection.

Table 3:

Change in MAB1 in the fifteen years following the lowest available
value (%) (Uruguay and selected countries)
Country% change

Spain

13.30

Portugal

9.37

Italy

9.21

Sweden8.63

Denmark

7.58

Serbia

4.61

USA

4.59

Chile

4.57

Uruguay

4.40

Hungary

3.48

Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from the Human Fertility Database/Collection.

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577Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

Figure 6:

MAB1 in Uruguay and selected countries (fifteen-year period
following the lowest available MAB1 value)

Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from the Human Fertility Database and the Human Fertility Collection.

More impressively, Uruguay stands out as the country with the highest standard
deviation of all those selected. It is followed by Chile, despite Chile having also started
with the highest values (and so a priori having less room to increase) (Figure 7). The
USA does not show a particularly high standard deviation during this period, which
may be explained by the fact that the data only starts in the 1960s: the pattern ofincreasing heterogeneity showed by Sullivan (2005) started in the 1990s.

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

Figure 7:

Standard deviation of MAB1 in Uruguay and selected countries(15-year period following the lowest available sdMAB1 value)

Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from the Human Fertility Database and the Human Fertility Collection.

5. Conclusions
The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the level and timing of fertility in
Uruguay between 1996 and 2011 using mostly summary measures by birth order andconditional ASFR. We presented new evidence for a better description of the patterns offertility decline in Uruguay, looking for trends in childlessness, family limitation, andpostponement of childbearing from a period approach. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the first paper to analyze the trends in fertility by birth order for a Latin
American country using vital statistics.
The data suggests that the decline in TFR between 1996 (2.5) and 2011 (1.9) in
Uruguay was mainly a consequence of the reduction in the number of higher orderbirths and a moderate postponement of first and second births. The proportion ofchildless women remained virtually unchanged, and thus its contribution to the decline

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579

Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguayof the total fertility was almost nil. Among the possible drivers of fertility decline,
parity-specific fertility control seems to have been the most important.
An increase in the period mean age at first and second births was also shown,which might reflect the onset of fertility postponement in Uruguay. Although Uruguay
seems to be at the forefront of the group of countries that have already started the
postponement phase of the Second Demographic Transition (Esteve et al. 2012), thepace of childbearing postponement in 1996-2011 has been relatively slow if comparedto the annual change of mean age at first birth for European countries during the“postponement transition” (Kohler, Billari, and Ortega 2002; Goldstein, Sobotka, andJasilioniene 2009). However, the increase of the mean age at birth for lower birth orders
was sufficient to produce the deflation of the conventional TFR for specific years
between 1996 and 2011.
One of the main findings of this study is that conditional age-specific first-birth
fertility rates exhibit an asymmetric bimodal distribution with peaks around ages 20 and
30, which can be observed to a lesser extent in second-order births. The emergence andconsolidation of this pattern accompanies an increasing heterogeneity in the timing ofchildbearing, which is larger than that of other countries selected for comparison (USA,some European countries, Chile), as can be observed when using the standard deviationin the mean age at first birth.
In fact, high and increasing heterogeneity in reproductive behavior in the context
of decreasing fertility levels might be a distinctive feature of Uruguay. All the evidence
suggests that women from lower social strata have not significantly changed their
behavior regarding their age at first childbirth, while women of middle to high social
strata have experienced some postponement (Videgain 2006; Nathan 2015, 2013;
Fernández Soto, Fostik, and Varela 2012; Varela, Fostik, and Pollero 2008; Cabella2009). The coexistence of both patterns produces a moderate increase in the MAB1 andthe accentuation of the bimodal curves of fertility rates by age at first birth.
In this regard, postponement transition in Uruguay cannot be approached without
considering the consolidation of the social status polarization of fertility timing. It isreasonable to assume that the forces that lead Uruguayan women to delay motherhood
act on a particular population group, which seems to be changing its birth timing as afunction of educational and labor-market opportunities. On the other hand, an importantsegment of the population appears to be immune to these changes. It is to be expectedthat this current model of dual reproductive behavior, inasmuch as it is linked tostructural social inequalities, will remain unchanged in the coming years. Care should
therefore be taken not to interpret the onset of fertility postponement as a universal
change in the Uruguayan population, as in the case of other spread-out behaviors (e.g.,
cohabitation – Cabella 2009).

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Demographic Research: Volume 34, Article 20

A plausible scenario for the years to come is that while Uruguay consolidates its
low fertility regime and eventually goes through the postponement transition, the entire
population will converge into a more homogenous quantum behavior (with TFR levels
below two children per woman11) but remain divergent in fertility timing based onsocial strata. In other words, the gap in reproductive behavior resulting from thedifferential educational and working opportunities mentioned above will be focused ontiming and not quantum.
Although the lack of information on other Latin American countries does not allow
us to infer the existence of a regional pattern, the similarity in the trajectories of Chileand Uruguay in recent years (Lima et al. 2015) stands out from the rest of the countries
considered. The increase in the heterogeneity of timing of first births and its relation tosocial inequality patterns are both going to form part of the regional research agenda in
the forthcoming years.

6. Acknowledgements
This paper was produced with funding from the Comisión Sectorial de Investigación
Científica (CSIC, Universidad de la República, Uruguay) under the research project “Eldescenso de la fecundidad en Uruguay (1996−2011): ¿cuál es su verdadera
dimensión?”. We would like to thank the Ministry of Public Health and the National
Institute of Statistics of Uruguay for allowing us to access the data and for theirtechnical support. We are also very thankful to the anonymous reviewers of an earlier
version of this paper for their valuable recommendations and to Kristof Zeman for his
useful comments about our computations of female population exposures.

Corrections
The previous version included wrong TFRp* values introduced by an incorrect formulaof r (that accounts for the inter-annual variation of MAB) in the STATA code. Insteadof r(t)=[MAB(t+1)-MAB(t-1)]/2, we had left this formula as [MAB(t+1)-MAB(t)]/2.
Small differences arise in our results with corrected TFRp* and they do not affectthe core of our analysis. However, Figures 2 and 3, and Table 1, were TFRp* results areshown, had to be adjusted with new calculations. Some TFRp* values mentioned in the
text on pages 570, 571, and 573 also needed to be revised.

11

The modal desired fertility in the country (Peri and Pardo 2008).

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Nathan, Pardo & Cabella: Diverging patterns of fertility decline in Uruguay

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Appendix
Figure A-1: Proportion of women by age and parity on Jan 1st, 2011, computedby two methods: extrapolation using 1996 census data with age- andparity-specific fertility rates for 1996–2010 (solid lines) versus 2011
census data (dotted lines)
1.00
P0

P0

P1

P1

P2

P2

P3+

P3+

Proportion of women

0.80

0.60

0.40

0.20

0.00
14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

34

36

38

40

42

44

46

48

50

Age

Source: authors’ calculation based on Live-Birth Certificate, Perinatal Information System, 1996 and 2011 census, and official female
population estimates by age.

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