Fertility rates by educational attainment in the EU: first steps towards comparable data

Veronica Corsini, European Commission, Eurostat

The aim of this paper is to present an on-going project in Eurostat to develop comparable information about fertility by educational attainment on a regular basis for all EU Member States. Eurostat can calculate the indicators using data already available and collected in the yearly demographic questionnaire. Since reference year 2007, Eurostat requests countries to annually transmit a breakdown of population and of number of live births by (mother's) single year of age and by ISCED97 broad education classes (ISCED0, 1 and 2; ISCED3 and 4; ISCED5 and 6; unknown; not applicable). The calculations of such fertility rates can be done directly for the countries providing both births and population series by the requested breakdown. For the countries not providing the needed breakdown for the female population, alternative data sources have been evaluated: the most appropriate source is currently the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS), which is at the moment also used to calculate life expectancy by educational attainment. From the EU LFS relevant information on educational attainment can be indirectly used in order to estimate the needed breakdown for the population. This cross-sectional approach is currently feasible for 15 EU Member States.