Low Fertility and Family Policies in Southern European Countries

This study conducted a comparative analysis on demographic trends and family policies in four EU member countries around the Mediterranean Sea, namely, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. The fertility in these countries belongs to the lowest group among industrialized countries. To clarify the reasons for their low fertility is the central concern of the report of this study. 1. Fertility trends and Proximate Factors for Fertility Rates (1) The fertility transition in countries in Southern Europe began 10 to 15 years later than Northern and Western Europe, and completed in the 1940s. Later, baby booms continued for some time in Southern Europe just like other European regions, and in the latter half of the 1970s, their fertility rates began falling at once to fall below the replacement level in the early half of the 1980s (This second fertility decline came behind Northern and Western Europe by around 10 years.) Fertility rates continued to fall until they recorded the lowest among developed countries ranging from 1.18 (Spain) to 1.46 (Portugal). (2) The fertility declines after the late 1970s are caused, as in other develope