Re-partnering and third births. Evidence from Sweden 1990–2005

Martin Dribe, Lund University
Maria A. Stanfors, Lund University

In this paper we study the importance of re-partnering for third birth fertility by education and income in Sweden 1990-2005. Does the chance of a third birth increase if a couple is dissolved? Does the partnership context of third birth fertility differ according to couple educational status and couple income? We use register data for the entire Swedish population born 1942–1989, with a total of 353,773 couples with two common children. Comparing to couples with middle educational status, we see that the odds of having a third birth are higher among couples with high educational status not only for same partner third births, but also for re-partnered births in most cases. Low-education couples are considerably more likely to have a third birth in a re-partner context compared to middle-education couples, while they have lower odds of having a third birth in the same partnership.