Fertility and education in Argentina: the case of Northwest Argentina and the Pampas Region between 2010 and 2022

This study aims to analyze the evolution of fertility according to the mother’s level of education and the role of changes in the effects of rate and composition-by years of schooling attained-in the modifications of the number of children per woman, on average, in Argentina and in the Northwestern (NOA) and Pampean regions between 2010 and 2022. To do this, specific fertility rates (SFR) and total fertility rates (TFR) are calculated, broken down by the mother’s educational stratum, and decomposition methods are incorporated to examine variations in the rate and composition effects. The main findings show a dynamic evolution with few variations in fertility by education groups between 2010 and 2014, followed by a marked decline between 2015 and 2022, especially among mothers with low and high education levels. The analysis determines that the decline in TFR is more associated with changes in fertility levels within educational strata (rate effect) than with variations in the proportion of women across schooling profiles (composition effect).

Keywords:
Fertility; Education; Argentina