Introduction

Models of fertility find application in many of the same areas of demographic estimation as models of mortality. They can be used to smooth a set of observed fertility rates or to convert a schedule classified in five-year age groups into a schedule by single years of age. They also find widespread use in population projections and various approaches to demographic estimation from limited and defective data.

In this session, we describe two different approaches to modelling fertility:

  1. The first makes use of parametric models (the analogue of, for example, the Makeham or Heligman-Pollard mathematical models of mortality rates).
  2. The second approach makes use of a fertility standard that can be used in a relational model of fertility, much as standard life tables can be used in relational models of mortality.