Fertility intentions of highly educated men and women and the rush hour of life

During the last decades, childlessness has increased continuously across Europe and has been gaining increasing significance in the demographic literature and socio-political discussion. Education-specific studies show that childlessness is a particularly widespread phenomenon among female university graduates. Based on the Generations and Gender Survey, we study fertility intentions of University graduates, concentrating on 2,800 university degree holders aged 27 to 40 years in western Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France and Norway. We study how main life domains are associated with the intention to have a child. Based on the concept of life course and inspired by the concept of rush hour of life we identify determinants of fertility intentions. We examine associations between employment and relationship on the one hand and plans for starting a family on the other. The study reveals remarkably lower fertility intentions as well as substantial gender differences in Germany and Austria. Childbearing plans are most pronounced among university graduates around the age of thirty. What is associated with fertility intentions is not only the degree of institutionalisation but also the duration of the relationship. Moreover, amount of working hours is related to childbearing plans.