Recent Demographic Trends in France: Fertility Remains Stable
Magali Mazuy, Magali Barbieri, Hippolyte d’Albis
On 1 January 2013, the population of France was 65.8 million, of which 63.7 million in metropolitan France, an increase of more than 0.4% with respect to the previous year. The number of adults who received a long-term residence permit in 2012 remained relatively stable. The majority are young women. Fertility remained unchanged with respect to the previous year, but as the proportion of women of reproductive age is falling, the number of births fell slightly in 2012. Age-specific fertility rates changed little, although fertility in the 35-39 age group continued to increase. Births outside marriage are increasing, and 57% of children born in 2012 were registered to unmarried parents. The number of induced abortions remained stable in 2012, with little change in the total abortion rate or in age-specific rates. After years of steady decline, provisional figures suggest that the number of marriages increased slightly in 2012. Marriage is still highly seasonal and the vast majority of weddings take place between June and September. Progress in life expectancy slowed in 2012 due to a series of winter epidemics. The number of deaths increased by more than 4% between 2011 and 2012.
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Mortality in France by département
Magali Barbieri
There have been marked disparities in mortality between metropolitan French départements for the past thirty years. They have lessened for women but remain high for men. As in the 1960s, the worst placed regions are the North, Alsace and Brittany. Mortality is lower in Paris, the south-western départements of Île-de-France, and Rhône-Alpes and Midi-Pyrénées (mainly for men); the lowest female mortality is found in the north of Poitou-Charentes and in Pays de la Loire. Geographical variations in life expectancy at birth are closely linked to variations in mortality above age 30, especially at ages 60-79, but not systematically with variations in child mortality. At ages 30-60, cancers remain the prime explanation (particularly lung cancer for men), together with alcoholism and suicide, which also impact the higher age groups. Cancers still account for a large share of mortality inequalities at ages 60-80, along with cardiovascular diseases, for women especially. After age 80, these diseases account for 50% of mortality variation between départements for women and 40% for men.
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Employment and Motherhood Entry in South Korea, 1978-2006
Li Ma
This study uses event history analysis to explore the relationship between women’s employment and motherhood entry in the socioeconomic and institutional context of South Korea. Data used for analysis come from waves 1 to 10 of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) collected between 1998 and 2007. The study shows that motherhood entry declines during the study period, particularly from the 1990s onward, with marriage postponement and decline arguably contributing to this downtrend. Women who leave the labour market are more likely to become mothers than working women and women with no employment experience. Labour market withdrawal is a signal of family formation and extension. However, this practice has been challenged in recent years, and staying at work up to and during pregnancy has gained prevalence. Among wage earners, women employed in the public sector are more likely than others to become a mother, underlying the importance of employment stability for motherhood entry in Korea. The fertility behaviour of private-sector employees appears to be sensitive to changes in the business cycle.
Accounting for the Effects of Data Collection Method. Application to the International Tobacco Control Netherlands Survey
Mary E. Thompson, Y. Celia Huang, Christian Boudreau, Geoffrey T. Fong, Bas Van Den Putte, Gera E. Nagelhout, Marc C. Willemsen
Mixed mode surveys are becoming increasingly common. This has led to calls for tests of the differences in response patterns between survey modes. In this article, we present an analysis of mode effects, using data from Wave 1 of the ITC Netherlands Survey, conducted by web (CAWI) and telephone (CATI). For many of the questions, the web and telephone samples differed in the distribution of response options. This was found to be partly attributable to selection effects, since the web and telephone respondents were recruited in different ways, and the web and telephone samples differed on demographic characteristics. Another source of difference in the response option distribution was "administrative" in origin, having to do with the tendency of respondents to process the options differently depending on survey mode. This article illustrates an approach to modelling in a mixed mode survey that takes into account both selection and administration mode effects. The model is also embedded in an analysis of reactions to labels on cigarette packages using ITC data from the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Demographic Analysis of AIDS Mortality in Spain
Béatrice Valdes
The emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s had a significant impact in Europe because it reawakened concerns about infectious diseases thought to be long-conquered by that time. So it not only affected mortality at certain relatively young ages, but also shifted the perception of health care needs. Even today, AIDS mortality in Spain is among the highest in Europe. It peaked there in 1994 before the wider use of combination therapy reduced the probability of dying from the disease. Analysis of data for that year reveals excess AIDS mortality among young adults. This phenomenon created a temporary but significant deformation of the risks of dying for people in their thirties: in the mid-1990s, AIDS mortality represented almost a third of total mortality in this age group in Spain.
