The association between education and induced abortion for three cohorts of adults in Finland

Figures & data

Table 1 Women's level of education at ages 20, 25, and 30 by cohort in Finland, weighted percentage and unweighted N

		1955–59			1965–69			1975–79
Variable	Category	20^1	25^1	30^1	20^1	25	30	20	25	30
Education	Basic	47.9	27.7	24.1	23.2	16.8	15.2	18.2	12.5	11.2
	Upper secondary	47.3	47.7	39.1	75.2	69.7	48.8	54.1	53.7	38.7
	Further	4.8	17.1	26.5	1.6	7.5	20.7	27.7	10.4	8.5
	Undergraduate	0.0	5.4	4.6	0.0	2.6	4.3	0.0	17.6	24.8
	Postgraduate	0.0	2.1	5.7	0.0	3.3	11.0	0.0	5.9	16.8
	Total = 100% (N)	(102,014)	(101,090)	(100,442)	(95,540)	(96,102)	(96,439)	(58,173)	(58,746)	(59,149)

¹Measured at age 20, 25, or 30 or the nearest year possible (see text).

Source: Register data from Statistics Finland and the National Institute for Health and Welfare.

Figure 1 First abortion rates per 1,000 women by age, cohort, and indication of abortion (social or medical) in Finland

Source: Register data from Statistics Finland and the National Institute for Health and Welfare.

Figure 2 The number of first abortions for social reasons per 1,000 women of the same age and education group in Finland

Source: As for Figure 1.

Figure 3 Concentration curves of the incidence of first abortion for social reasons against cumulative level of education by cohort in Finland

Source: As for Figure 1.

Table 2 Discrete-time event-history models for first abortion by age group and cohort in Finland. Hazard-odds ratios (HOR) with 95 per cent confidence intervals

Age	20–24		25–29		30–34		35+
	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%
Cohort 1955–59
Education
Basic (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00		1.00
Upper secondary	0.83	(0.79–0.88)	0.83	(0.77–0.89)	0.79	(0.73–0.86)	0.95	(0.88–1.03)
Further	0.56	(0.48–0.66)	0.62	(0.55–0.68)	0.75	(0.68–0.83)	0.94	(0.85–1.03)
Undergraduate	0.34	(0.18–0.64)	0.47	(0.38–0.57)	0.71	(0.58–0.87)	0.90	(0.76–1.07)
Postgraduate			0.38	(0.27–0.54)	0.58	(0.47–0.71)	0.81	(0.68–0.96)
Cohort 1965–69
Education
Basic (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00		1.00
Upper secondary	0.61	(0.58–0.64)	0.76	(0.70–0.82)	0.72	(0.66–0.80)	0.90	(0.81–1.00)
Further	0.55	(0.45–0.67)	0.61	(0.53–0.71)	0.68	(0.60–0.77)	0.75	(0.66–0.85)
Undergraduate			0.49	(0.38–0.64)	0.46	(0.36–0.58)	0.75	(0.62–0.91)
Postgraduate			0.27	(0.20–0.36)	0.48	(0.40–0.57)	0.58	(0.49–0.68)
Cohort 1975–79
Education
Basic (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00
Upper secondary	0.49	(0.46–0.53)	0.64	(0.58–0.70)	0.84	(0.73–0.97)
Further	0.40	(0.37–0.44)	0.57	(0.50–0.66)	0.71	(0.58–0.87)
Undergraduate			0.40	(0.35–0.45)	0.55	(0.46–0.66)
Postgraduate			0.26	(0.20–0.33)	0.41	(0.32–0.51)

Notes: All models were estimated separately by cohort and age group, and include age, education, occupational group, indicator for being childless, months since last birth and its quadratic term, parity, relationship status, place of residence, and immigration status.

Figure 4 The number of abortions per 1,000 women by level of education and age in Finland with 95 per cent confidence intervals estimated using marginal effects at representative values. Adjusted for occupational group, indicator for being childless, months since last birth and its quadratic term, parity, relationship status, place of residence, and immigration status

Source: As for Figure 1.

Figure A1 The number of first abortions for social reasons per 1,000 women of the same age and occupational group in Finland

Source: As for Figure 1.

Table A1 Women's occupational status at ages 20, 25, and 30 by cohort in Finland, weighted percentage and unweighted N

	1955–59			1965–69			1975–79
Category	20^1	25^1	30^1	20^1	25^1	30^1	20^1	25^1	30
Manual worker	22.6	24.8	21.2	19.1	19.7	17.4	15.1	20.4	15.8
Lower-level employee	25.3	41.8	44.6	24.8	36.2	34.6	13.5	31.9	39.5
Upper-level employee	0.8	6.6	13.2	1.6	8.0	14.4	1.3	9.5	20.4
Student	39.1	12.1	3.8	41.1	16.8	7.4	50.9	19.1	6.2
Other	10.1	11.9	15.6	12.4	18.2	25.1	18.2	18.0	17.3
Missing	2.1	2.8	1.6	1.1	1.1	1.1	0.9	1.1	0.8
Total = 100% (N)	(102,014)	(101,090)	(100,554)	(95,592)	(95,944)	(96,462)	(58,227)	(58,706)	(59,149)

¹Measured at age 20, 25, or 30 or the nearest year possible (see text). For that reason, values of N for SES are different from education (sometimes measured in different years).

Source: As for Table 1.

Table A2 Discrete-time event-history models for first abortion by age group and cohort in Finland. Hazard-odds ratios (HOR) with 95 per cent confidence intervals

	20–24		25–29		30–34		35+
Age	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%	HOR	CI 95%
Cohort 1955–59
Occupational group
Manual worker (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00		1.00
Lower-level employee	0.77	(0.72–0.83)	0.89	(0.82–0.96)	0.96	(0.88–1.05)	1.06	(0.97–1.15)
Upper-level employee	0.71	(0.52–0.96)	0.89	(0.75–1.05)	0.88	(0.76–1.02)	0.97	(0.85–1.11)
Student	0.71	(0.66–0.76)	0.92	(0.82–1.02)	1.13	(0.95–1.35)	1.08	(0.91–1.28)
Other	0.87	(0.80–0.95)	0.95	(0.86–1.05)	0.95	(0.85–1.06)	0.99	(0.89–1.10)
Cohort 1965–69
Occupational group
Manual worker (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00		1.00
Lower-level employee	0.78	(0.73–0.83)	0.90	(0.83–0.97)	1.01	(0.91–1.12)	1.07	(0.97–1.19)
Upper-level employee	0.73	(0.61–0.88)	0.88	(0.76–1.02)	0.98	(0.84–1.14)	1.09	(0.94–1.26)
Student	0.62	(0.58–0.66)	0.83	(0.75–0.91)	0.97	(0.83–1.12)	1.20	(1.04–1.39)
Other	1.00	(0.93–1.08)	0.94	(0.86–1.02)	0.99	(0.90–1.10)	1.04	(0.93–1.15)
Cohort 1975–79
Occupational group
Manual worker (ref.)	1.00		1.00		1.00
Lower-level employee	0.87	(0.78–0.96)	0.88	(0.80–0.96)	0.87	(0.77–0.99)
Upper-level employee	0.77	(0.58–1.02)	0.71	(0.61–0.83)	0.79	(0.66–0.95)
Student	0.75	(0.69–0.82)	0.84	(0.76–0.92)	0.89	(0.73–1.08)
Other	0.95	(0.87–1.05)	0.95	(0.87–1.05)	0.91	(0.79–1.04)

Notes: All models were estimated separately by cohort and age group, and include age, education, occupational group, indicator for being childless, months since last birth and its quadratic term, parity, relationship status, place of residence, and immigration status.

Source: As for Table 1.