Fertility Differentials among Catholics in Australia

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Abstract
By the use of some special cross-tabulations of a 20% random sample of wives enumerated in the Australian census of 1954, we have been able to demonstrate the existence of substantial fertility differentials between various subgroups of Catholic wives. In most instances, the differentials within this religious category are in the same direction as those to be found among Western populations generally: Rural wives have a higher fertility than urban, while the fertility of both has undergone a substantial decline over the past several decades. Taking women of completed childbearing whose current (i.e., as of 1954) marriages began before they reached the age of 26 (thus standardizing for both age at marriage and duration of marriage), a pronounced decline in median issue, primarily as the result of a shift from large families of 6+ children to a concentration in the middle range of 2-3 children, is found.