Childlessness in Brazil: socioeconomic and regional diversity

Until recently to talk about childlessness in Brazil would not find sound research grounds. Since 2005 the country has reached fertility replacement level and the newest estimates indicate that fertility continues its decline path, from 1.9 in 2010 and falling to 1.7 in 2011. Fertility schedule is diverse when compared to countries because childbearing starts early and stops also early in women’s life. In such low fertility regimes it would be expected that a high percentage of women retreat from childbearing as in several European countries. However, in average in 2010, 13% of women aged 40-49, that is, women born between 1961 and 1970, at the beginning of fertility transition, did not have any children, a figure much lower than most European countries. On the other hand, given the high inequality present in almost all socioeconomic indicators, childlessness is very different for well educated and low-educated women, for wealthier and poor . The objective of this paper is to analyze the tendencies on childlessness in Brazil looking at the socioeconomic and regional differences in order to advance some hypothesis to the future level of fertility in Brazil. The question we try to answer is whether Brazil will become a childless society or only some segments of the population will be under such regime.