URBAN VERSUS RURAL - FERTILITY DECLINE IN THE CITIES AND RURAL DISTRICTS OF PRUSSIA, 1875 TO 1910

Marital fertility in 54 Prussian cities and 407 Prussian Kreise (admin istrative areas) is analyzed using unusually rich and detailed socioec onomic and demographic data from eight quinquennial census between 187 5 and 1910. Pooled cross-section time series methods are used to exami ne influences on marital fertility level and on marital fertility decl ine, focusing particularly on fertility differences according to level of urbanization. Increases in female labour force participation rate and income, the growth of financial services and communications, impro vement in education, and reduction in infant mortality account for mos t of the marital fertility decline in 19th century Prussia. In 1875, r ural and urban fertility were similar but by 1910, urban fertility was far lower than rural in part because the values of some of these vari ables changed more rapidly in the cities, and in part because some of these variables had stronger effects in urban settings.