No Time to Lose? Changes in Partnership Prerequisites to Childbearing across Ages

Cristina Suero García , University of Vienna
Eva Beaujouan, University of Vienna, Wittgenstein Centre

In a context of postponed fertility, individuals often delay childbearing until certain conditions, such as partnership stability, are met. However, the fecundity decline associated to age may impose certain limits on how long individuals can postpone parenthood in pursuit of these prerequisites. Older women may experience greater pressure to have children within a limited timeframe, which may lead to childbearing within less-tested partnerships or even outside a partnership. To explore these dynamics, we use longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EUSILC), pooling data from multiple countries for the years 2004 to 2022. We examine: (1) the likelihood of having a child among women who have recently entered a co-residential partnership, by age; (2) the likelihood of dissolving a co-residential partnership shortly after childbirth, by age; and (3) the likelihood of having a child while not in a partnership, by age. We also assess cross-country variation in these patterns. Our preliminary results show that women who form a co-residential partnership at ages 35-39 are substantially more likely to have a child soon after entering the relationship than younger women. Moreover, among those who have a first child during the observation window, the likelihood of giving birth without a co-resident partner increases sharply with age and is particularly high among women aged 40-45. These findings suggest that older women exhibit greater flexibility regarding partnership circumstances when pursuing motherhood, especially in societies where childbearing is most commonly postponed.

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 Presented in Session P3. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 3