Prioux F
Popul. 1990;2:141-61.
"It is known that the fertility decline in Western Europe started almost everywhere in the mid-1960s, that the national trends have run in parallel, and that the reason was essentially the decrease in the numbers of large families, or even their complete disappearance. However, for want of comparable data, international comparisons are often limited to annual fertility indices, and do not distinguish changes due to reduced family size from those which are the result of changes in fertility timing....[The author presents,] for a broad range of countries, an analysis by cohort and birth order. This makes it possible to measure the fertility decline in more detail, to compare its amplitude in the various parts of Europe, and to study its mechanisms."
众所周知，西欧的生育率下降几乎在20世纪60年代中期于各地同时开始，各国的趋势并行发展，其原因主要是大家庭数量减少，甚至完全消失。然而，由于缺乏可比数据，国际比较往往仅限于年度生育率指数，无法区分家庭规模缩小导致的变化与生育时间变化导致的变化……[作者针对]众多国家进行了按队列和出生顺序的分析。这使得能够更详细地衡量生育率下降情况，比较欧洲不同地区的下降幅度，并研究其机制。
