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Religiosity, Secularity and Fertility in Canada

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Abstract

Using several cycles of the Canadian General Social Survey covering cohorts born from the early 1900s onwards, this paper examines how religiosity and secularity associate with fertility in Canada. The analysis shows that among multiple dimensions of religiosity, religious attendance is the strongest predictor of higher fertility in the country. For the latest cycle conducted in 2011, three mutually exclusive groups of secularized women are compared with the actively religious in their fertility behaviour and intentions. All these secularized women are found to have lower fertility rates compared with the actively religious. Among them, the strictly seculars, a proxy identifier for the atheists, have the lowest fertility and the highest likelihood of remaining childless. Various implications are discussed.

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Fig. 1

Note: The data points are driven from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1985, 2001 and 2011

Fig. 2

Note: The data points are driven from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1985, 2001 and 2011

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  1. Department of Economics, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada

    Maryam Dilmaghani

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  1. Maryam Dilmaghani
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Correspondence to Maryam Dilmaghani.

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Dilmaghani, M. Religiosity, Secularity and Fertility in Canada. Eur J Population 35, 403–428 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-018-9487-z

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