Fertility by ethnic and religious groups in the UK: trends in a multi-cultural context

Sylvie Dubuc, University of Oxford

Family planning involves a number of personal, cultural and religious preferences that impact on fertility rates. Differences in fertility rates between ethnic groups in immigrant countries are not well studied and there is very scarce information on fertility rates between religious groups, partly because few data is available. Here we report recent trends in total fertility rates (TFR) of mothers in the UK belonging to the major different ethnic and/or religious groups. TFR were estimated based on the cross sectional Labour Force Survey in the UK, applying reverse survival techniques to obtain robust estimates. A rapid and continuing decline of TFR for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups since 1987 support the theory of TFR convergence in immigrant countries. Cross-analysis of fertility by ethnic and religious belonging may suggest an overall decreasing influence of both cultural traits over time in a multi-cultural context.