Childbearing preferences and family issues in Europe

The report analyzes the questions on fertility issues included in the special Eurobarometer N. 253, wave 65.1 and 65.31, carried out in 2006 by TNS Opinion & Social, at the request of the European Commission, Directorate-General Communication, Opinion Polls. The aim of the report is to show the major trends in childbearing preferences and fertility attitudes by gender and across age groups or generations. The age differences may be interpreted either as a change over the life course of individuals, or as a discrepancy between people at different ages. As we do not have enough information to ascertain whether they are mostly age or cohort changes, we leave the interpretation to the reader, and we use the terms age and cohort in an interchangeable way. Following the basic distinction between quantum and tempo of fertility, we distinguish between family size preferences and the ideal time to have the first child. We group together at the end of the report all the items concerning childbearing and childrearing attitudes and orientations. A more general question related to the solutions of potential shortages in the work force, does not explicitly concern fertility issues, but is linked to the consequences of low fertility at societal level, i.e., population ageing. This is used as an introductory question to the report.