Understanding Asia’s revolutionary fertility change through Gavin W. Jones’ work

ABSTRACT

Gavin Jones’ professional career, from the 1960s to the 2020s, coincided with one of the most important periods of demographic change—the Asian fertility revolution. This article examines how his prolific research offers a unique window into understanding the fertility changes in Asia during the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century. Across his vast scholarship, Jones documented the fertility change in real time while they were underway, through careful measurement and insightful interpretations of their causes and consequences. As the spread and pace of fertility transitions varied across countries, ethnic communities, geographical regions, and educational groups, he assembled data to measure and analyse patterns and trends. He drew upon multiple theories to explain unexpected patterns. Finally, he documented the emergence of Asia’s ultra-low fertility in recent decades. Jones’ mastery of statistical demography combined with his intimate connection with datasets and vast knowledge about the region, produced a truly comprehensive scholarship on Asia’s fertility transitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Fertility transition
• ultra-low fertility
• demographic transition theory
• population ageing
• Asia

Acknowledgements

I thank Charles Hirschman, Aris Ananta, and the Asian Population Studies editorial team for providing helpful suggestions on previous versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).