Authors

• Stone, Lyman (McGill University)
• Golovina, Kateryna (Family Federation of Finland. Population Research Institute)
• Bastionelli, Elena (Bocconi University)

Keywords

expectation, families, family planning, family size, norms

Abstract

The material is compiled from survey data collected worldwide between 1936 and 2023. 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.