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Lowest-Low Fertility

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

Synonyms

Very low fertility

Definition

Lowest-low fertility refers to a situation in which the total period fertility rate (TFR) has fallen to a value of 1.3 or lower (Kohler et al. 2002; Sobotka 2004; Goldstein et al. 2009).

Overview

The literature on lowest-low fertility has documented its spread over time and across space, explanations therein, and has focused on methodological and substantive debates surroundings measurement of the phenomenon, its inevitability, and its long-term consequences for demographic change in the form of population aging. This entry deals with these issues.

Timing and Geographic Expanse: The literature on lowest-low fertility has documented its spread over time and across space. In Europe and elsewhere, there has been a spectacular rise in the incidence of lowest-low fertility. While no European country had such a low fertility level in the year 1990, by 2001, 15 countries (including, but not limited to, countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Martin P. Piotrowski & Wyatt Schmitz

  2. School of Library and Information Studies, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Shuyu Lu

Authors
  1. Martin P. Piotrowski
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  2. Wyatt Schmitz
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  3. Shuyu Lu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin P. Piotrowski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Division, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, NY, USA

    Danan Gu

  2. Department of Population Health Sciences, Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew E. Dupre

Section Editor information

  1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Yuying Tong

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Piotrowski, M.P., Schmitz, W., Lu, S. (2021). Lowest-Low Fertility. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_651

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