ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the measures of social stratification can be considered to relate to fertility outcomes. The findings show that structures of social stratification captured in measures such as educational attainment and occupational categorisations relate to the timing of first birth in a systematic, but nuanced, manner. The chapter also explains the methodology employed in the event history analysis using the Cox Proportional Hazard model. This renders it possible to analyse the relationship between the circumstances of individuals at the Census points of 1991 and 2001, and the first birth outcome. The relationship between the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) occupational categorisation measure and the first birth outcome also present thought-provoking contrasts. The results also present some limited evidence that standard geographies may be integrated with measures of social stratification to add explanation in the timing of first birth.
