Characterization of Fertility Levels in Brazil, 1970-2010

Abstract

We analyze the 1970, 1980, 1991, 2000, and 2010 Brazilian Demographic Censuses, in order to investigate the associated factors with a woman having had a live birth during the year prior to each census. We estimated logistic regression models for women aged 10-49 years. As independent variables, we selected region of residence, rural/urban location, presence of electricity, color/race, religion, marital status, labor market participation, time of residence in the municipality, information about whether they had a stillbirth, age, education, and parity. Our findings confirm that the probability a woman had a child is higher in the North and Northeast regions, as well as in households without electricity. Women that have a greater chance of having had a child are black/brown, Catholic, married, non-labor market participants, short-term migrants, experienced a stillbirth, between 20-29 years of age, have less education, and have higher parity. Patterns have been changing throughout time, thus posing questions for further analyses.