Relationship between Age of Marriage, Womens Education and Fertility 1954-93: A Study in the West of Iran

Marzieh Kaboudi¹, Ali Ramezakhani²*, Houman Manouchehri³ and Ebrahim Hajizadeh⁴

1School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

2Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

3Department of Basic Sciences, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

4Faculty of Medicine, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1207

ABSTRACT:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has experienced a sustained fertility decline over the past three decades, with total fertility rates decreasing to below replacement levels. Despite well-documented literature on the relationship between fertility and women's education, no empirical research has compared these trends during the past forty years. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between fertility and women's education, in the west of Iran. In an historical longitudinal household survey in 2009, 3443 women who had ever-married were interviewed. This study focused on women's fertility over their lifetime, according to education attainment levels for the period 1954-1993. An inverse relationship was found between age of marriage and the number ofchildren born by 40 years-of-age (P<0.01). Over the last few decades, the number of children born has decreased in all levels of mother's education, furthermore, the highest level of fertility decline was observed among women with an elementary level of education. The results of the study showed declining fertility convergence among the various education levels. Managers and policy makers in addition to encouraging employed women to have more children should also explore the issues for uneducated women and housewives.

KEYWORDS: Marriage age; Fertility; Education; Iran

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