DDI description: Fertility Preferences: Global Data 1936-2025 DDI-kuvailu: Lapsitoiveet: globaali aineisto 1936-2025 4032 Finnish Social Science Data Archive Finnish Social Science Data Archive Finnish Social Science Data Archive 1.0.0 Fertility Preferences: Global Data 1936-2025 [metadata]. Metadata version 1.0.0 (2026-02-09). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [producer and distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4032; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4032 FSD:n aineistokuvailut (FSD metadata records), joiden tekijä on Suomen yhteiskuntatieteellinen tietoarkisto (Finnish Social Science Data Archive), on lisensoitu Creative Commons 1.0 Yleismaailmallinen (CC0 1.0) -lisenssillä. FSD:n aineistokuvailut (FSD metadata records) by Suomen yhteiskuntatieteellinen tietoarkisto (Finnish Social Science Data Archive) are licensed under a Creative Commons 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) license. FSD:n aineistokuvailut (FSD metadata records) av Finlands samhällsvetenskapliga dataarkiv (Finnish Social Science Data Archive) är licensierade under en Creative Commons 1.0 Universiell (CC0 1.0) licens. Fertility Preferences: Global Data 1936-2025 Global Fertility Preferences Database (GFPD) Lapsitoiveet: globaali aineisto 1936-2025 4032 urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4032 10.60686/t-fsd4032 Stone, Lyman Golovina, Kateryna 0000-0002-4662-9707 Bastianelli, Elena In accordance with the agreement between FSD and the depositor. 101094741 331729 Finnish Social Science Data Archive Individual datasets

Individual datasets that do not belong to any series.

 2.0 Stone, Lyman (McGill University) & Golovina, Kateryna (Family Federation of Finland) & Bastianelli, Elena (Bocconi University): Fertility Preferences: Global Data 1936-2025 [dataset]. Data version 2.0 (2026-06-05). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4032; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4032 families family planning family size expectation norms Social sciences Reproductive health Social behaviour and attitudes

The material is compiled from survey data collected worldwide between 1936 and 2025. Surveys have been used to collect information on respondents' fertility preferences and the type of preferences they have. The data does not contain information on individual respondents, but rather the average number of children respondents wish to have, and descriptive information related to the surveys.

The main sources of information have been World Values Survey (WVS), European Values Study (EVS), International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), Eurobarometer (EB), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and Generation and Gender Surveys (GGS). In addition, data has been collected from country-specific studies, such as Family Barometer (Finland) and National Fertility Survey (Japan). The data includes several indicators of fertility preferences, such as the general and personal ideal number of children, the intended number of children, the desired number of children, the expected number of children, and the wanted number of children.

Background variables for each survey include the country of collection, year of collection, sample size, gender of respondents, and age group of respondents.

 United Arab Emirates Antigua and Barbuda Albania Armenia Argentina Austria Australia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Bangladesh Belgium Burkina Faso Bulgaria Benin Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Brazil Bahamas Bhutan Botswana Belarus Belize Canada Congo Switzerland Côte d'Ivoire Chile Cameroon China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Cabo Verde Cyprus Czechia Germany Denmark Dominican Republic Algeria Ecuador Estonia Egypt Eritrea Spain Ethiopia Finland Fiji France United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Georgia Ghana Gambia Greece Guatemala Guyana Croatia Haiti Hungary Indonesia Ireland Israel India Iran (Islamic Republic of) Iceland Italy Jamaica Jordan Japan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Cambodia Korea (Republic of) Kazakhstan Lebanon Sri Lanka Luxembourg Latvia Morocco Monaco Madagascar Mali Myanmar Mongolia Mauritania Mauritius Maldives Malawi Mexico Malaysia Mozambique Niger Nigeria Netherlands Norway Nepal New Zealand Peru Philippines Pakistan Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saudi Arabia Solomon Islands Serbia Sudan Sweden Singapore Slovenia Slovakia Senegal Togo Thailand Tunisia Tonga Türkiye Trinidad and Tobago Taiwan (Province of China) United Republic of Tanzania Ukraine Uganda United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Viet Nam South Africa Zambia Zimbabwe Afghanistan Angola Burundi Central African Republic Chad Comoros El Salvador Eswatini Gabon Guinea Honduras Hong Kong Iraq Kiribati Kuwait Lesotho Liberia Lithuania Malta Marshall Islands Moldova (Republic of) Montenegro Namibia Nauru Nicaragua Oman Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Puerto Rico Samoa Sao Tome and Principe Sierra Leone Somalia Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Timor-Leste Turkmenistan Tuvalu Vanuatu Yemen United Arab Emirates Antigua and Barbuda Albania Armenia Argentina Austria Australia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Bangladesh Belgium Burkina Faso Bulgaria Benin Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Brazil Bahamas Bhutan Botswana Belarus Belize Canada Congo Switzerland Côte d'Ivoire Chile Cameroon China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Cabo Verde Cyprus Czechia Germany Denmark Dominican Republic Algeria Ecuador Estonia Egypt Eritrea Spain Ethiopia Finland Fiji France United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Georgia Ghana Gambia Greece Guatemala Guyana Croatia Haiti Hungary Indonesia Ireland Israel India Iran (Islamic Republic of) Iceland Italy Jamaica Jordan Japan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Cambodia Korea (Republic of) Kazakhstan Lebanon Sri Lanka Luxembourg Latvia Morocco Monaco Madagascar Mali Myanmar Mongolia Mauritania Mauritius Maldives Malawi Mexico Malaysia Mozambique Niger Nigeria Netherlands Norway Nepal New Zealand Peru Philippines Pakistan Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saudi Arabia Solomon Islands Serbia Sudan Sweden Singapore Slovenia Slovakia Senegal Togo Thailand Tunisia Tonga Türkiye Trinidad and Tobago Taiwan (Province of China) United Republic of Tanzania Ukraine Uganda United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Viet Nam South Africa Zambia Zimbabwe Afghanistan Angola Burundi Central African Republic Chad Comoros El Salvador Eswatini Gabon Guinea Honduras Hong Kong Iraq Kiribati Kuwait Lesotho Liberia Lithuania Malta Marshall Islands Moldova (Republic of) Montenegro Namibia Nauru Nicaragua Oman Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Puerto Rico Samoa Sao Tome and Principe Sierra Leone Somalia Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Timor-Leste Turkmenistan Tuvalu Vanuatu Yemen Other analysis unit Other Survey Surveys collected from around the world, assessing respondents' fertility preferences Quantitative Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section Longitudinal.TrendRepeatedCrossSection Family Federation of Finland. Population Research Institute Non-probability: Purposive Nonprobability.Purposive Aggregation Aggregation Compilation/Synthesis CompilationSynthesis Data collection guidelines: Secondary data collection guide DataCollectionGuidelines.SecondaryDataCollectionGuide Survey data compiled from various sources There are no weight variables in the data. Detailed and specific data description in Finnish and English. The data are checked and processed in detail. If necessary, the data are anonymised. Finnish Social Science Data Archive The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study. The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication. Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi. The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data. When the original survey data were available, fertility preference indicators were recalculated from the original data using the provided survey weights where applicable. For many cases, particularly the older surveys, original data were not publicly available or no longer exist. In such cases, this archived data set includes published mean estimates from those surveys. daF4032_eng.sav 1746 22 SPSS Data File [fsd_no] FSD study number FSD study number 1746 4032 4032 4032.00 .000 [fsd_vr] FSD edition number FSD edition number 1746 2.0 2.0 2.000 .0000 [fsd_id] FSD case id FSD case id 1746 1 1746 873.50 504.171 [collRound] Collection round Collection round 1746 1 2 1.03 .159 1 1st round, collected 2018-2025 1701 2 2nd round 45 [Country] Country of data collection Country of data collection [Region] Region of data collection (classified by researcher) Region of data collection (classified by researcher) 1746 1 9 4.27 2.633 1 Anglo Settler 296 2 East Asia 189 3 Europe 364 4 FSU (Former Soviet Union) 244 5 LatAm (Latin America) 152 6 MENA (Middle East and North Africa) 120 7 Pacific 16 8 South Africa 162 9 Sub-Saharan Africa 203 [Year] Year of data collection Year of data collection 1746 1936 2024 2000.40 16.856 [MeanPreferNumberofChildren] Mean of the preference on number of children among the respondents of the survey Mean of the preference on number of children among the respondents of the survey 1746 1.300000000000000 10.700000000000000 2.875981627689838 1.116951033822488 [TypeofPreference] Type of preference asked in the survey Type of preference asked in the survey 1642 1 2 1.59 .493 1 General, refers to societal norms and expectations about family size 678 2 Personal, captures an individual's preferred number of children 964 SYSMISS 104 [KindofPreference] Kind of preference asked in the survey (for example ideal, desire, intention) Kind of preference asked in the survey (for example ideal, desire, intention) 1642 1 17 6.13 2.079 1 Conditional desire 1 2 Coombs ideal 1 3 Desire 133 4 Expect 61 5 Happiest 6 6 Ideal 1279 7 Ideal (for couple) 10 8 Intend 79 9 Intend (alternate) 6 10 Intend (parity progression model) 8 11 Intend (for couple) 10 12 Like to have 2 13 Minimum expect 1 14 Plan 5 15 Prefer 8 16 Should have 4 17 Want 28 SYSMISS 104 [NonNumericofRespondents] Non-numeric share of respondents. Where available, this refers to responses such as don't know, not sure, or up to God, rather than simple missing values. This generally includes refusals to answer. Non-numeric share of respondents. Where available, this refers to responses such as don't know, not sure, or up to God, rather than simple missing values. This generally includes refusals to answer. [SampleSize] Number of respondents in the survey Number of respondents in the survey [Sex] Gender of the respondents in the survey Gender of the respondents in the survey 1679 1 3 1.92 .378 1 All 196 2 Females 1427 3 Males 56 SYSMISS 67 [Age] Age group of the respondents in the survey Age group of the respondents in the survey [Urban] Area of data collection (urban/rural) Area of data collection (urban/rural) 1641 1 10 1.34 1.480 1 All 1557 2 Central India 1 3 Mysore (Rural) 1 4 Mysore (Urban) 1 5 New Delhi 1 6 Peninsular Malaysia 3 7 Rural 11 8 Urban 64 9 Urban (Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor) 1 10 Urban, Sungdong Gu 1 SYSMISS 105 [RegionorGroup] Region and the type of respondent group in the survey Region and the type of respondent group in the survey [SurveyType] Type of the survey Type of the survey 1673 1 6 3.48 1.347 1 Academic Survey 8 2 Health Survey 627 3 Private Survey 50 4 Social Survey 722 5 Special Purpose Survey 70 6 Values Survey 196 SYSMISS 73 [HasSampleSize] Has the sample size of the survey been recorded? Has the sample size of the survey been recorded? 1746 0 1 .82 .383 0 No 311 1 Yes 1435 [CompleteDescription] Complete description of the data. Indicates that metadata on question wording, sample size, and survey type were available. For some older surveys, such information is not available. Complete description of the data. Indicates that metadata on question wording, sample size, and survey type were available. For some older surveys, such information is not available. 1746 0 1 .77 .418 0 No 393 1 Yes 1353 [Source] Source survey Source survey [UniqueSurveyLabel] Compilation of information on the survey: country, year of data collection, and survey name. Some surveys are recorded in separate entries based on respondents' age or sex. Compilation of information on the survey: country, year of data collection, and survey name. Some surveys are recorded in separate entries based on respondents' age or sex. [LinkReference] Reference and a link to the source survey data Reference and a link to the source survey data