A Tracing Study on Fertility Desire and Fertility Behavior

Abstract Upon the data from the two surveys which conducted in 2006 and 2011 in Beijing, China by Beijing Population Research Institute, this study examined the change of fertility desire and relationship between fertility desire and fertility behavior. In 2006 Survey, 1025 respondents aged 20-34 were interviewed and 610 of them were followed up in 2011. The study found that the fertility desire is changeable and unstable; meanwhile the change is regular. It is shown the fertility desire has been rising in past five years that the mean number of the ideal children raised from 1.21 in 2006 to 1.30 in 2011. However it is still kept at an ex-low level. The study examined that fertility behavior is lower than fertility desire in developed areas in Beijing, like many post-industrial societies in the West and newly industrialized countries in Asia.
Keywords: fertility desire; fertility behavior; longitudinal research