Wykształcenie par a (bez)dzietność w Polsce

Education is one of the most important determinants of fertility. The vast majority of previous research on the effect of educational level on reproductive behavior concerns women, while a couple perspective on fertility, although seems natural, is often omitted. Couples’ fertility might be influenced by individual (absolute) characteristics of both partners as well as by their joint (relative) characteristics. The aim of this study is to analyse childlessness and fertility by couples’ educational profile which is a combination of both partners’ educational levels. Different levels of educational exogamy are considered. Based on the two waves of Polish Generations and Gender Survey (GGS-PL) couples who completed their reproduction as well as those who are still in their reproductive ages are analysed. Among homogamous profiles the level of education negatively influences couples fertility, which means that highly educated have the lowest number of children. However, the level of (definite) childlessness is one of the highest among those who are low educated. Family size of heterogamous unions are similar among older generations, but for younger couples hypogamy limits the number of children as compared to hypergamy. This finding suggest that young couples in which women are more educated than their partners encounter more difficulties in combing work and family than unions in which a man is more educated than a woman