Fertility patterns and sex composition preferences in immigrant–native unions in Sweden

Figures & data

Figure 1 Theoretical expectations of sex composition preferences for children in intermarriages

Notes:

 = no preference or one-of-each preference;

 = daughter preference;

 = son preference;

 = relative daughter preference (as for the Swedish reference category);

 = relative son preference.

Source: Author’s own.

Table 1 Relative third-birth risks by union type and sex composition of previous children, estimated from piecewise constant exponential models: Sweden, 1990–2009

		Model 1	Model 2
Union type and sex composition of previous children
Endogamous Swedish couple	1B1G	Ref.	Ref.
	2B	1.39***	1.39***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
	2G	1.24***	1.24***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
Endogamous immigrant couple	1B1G	1.62***	1.58***
		(0.03)	(0.03)
	2B	1.76***	1.72***
		(0.04)	(0.03)
	2G	2.26***	2.20***
		(0.04)	(0.04)
Swedish woman and immigrant man	1B1G	1.54***	1.54***
		(0.06)	(0.06)
	2B	1.83***	1.83***
		(0.09)	(0.09)
	2G	1.84***	1.85***
		(0.09)	(0.09)
Swedish man and immigrant woman	1B1G	0.85**	0.80***
		(0.04)	(0.04)
	2B	1.24***	1.17**
		(0.07)	(0.07)
	2G	1.14	1.08
		(0.08)	(0.07)
Mother’s age		1.02*	1.03**
		(0.01)	(0.01)
Mother’s age squared		1.00***	1.00***
		(0.00)	(0.00)
Parental age gap	± 2 years (ref.)
	Mother older(>2 years)	1.43***	1.48***
		(0.02)	(0.02)
	Father older (3–<7 years)	0.88***	0.87***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
	Father older (≥7 years)	0.85***	0.85***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
Period	1990–94 (ref.)
	1995–99	0.69***	0.71***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
	2000–04	0.78***	0.80***
		(0.01)	(0.01)
	2005–09	0.93***	0.90***
Mother’s education	Secondary (ref.)
	Compulsory/unknown	–	1.23***
			(0.01)
	Higher education	–	1.77***
			(0.02)
Municipality fixed effects		Yes	Yes
N		4,594,827	4,594,827
Subjects		403,800	403,800
Events		94,486	94,486
LR test			3401.6***

***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.

Notes: All models include time since last birth (piecewise). Table shows hazard ratios, with standard errors in parentheses. 1B1G = one boy, one girl; 2B = two boys; 2G = two girls. Ref. denotes the reference category.

Source: Author’s analysis of data from Swedish administrative registers (Statistics Sweden).

Table 2 Relative third-birth risks in exogamous unions between immigrants and Swedish men or women, estimated from Cox proportional hazards models with and without family fixed effects: Sweden 1990–2009

	Women			Men
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Endogamous Swedish unions	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.
Exogamous unions	1.49***	1.52***	1.22	0.90**	0.80*	0.50***
	(0.04)	(0.09)	(0.14)	(0.03)	(0.07)	(0.08)
Family fixed effects	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
N	4,216,681	951,692	3,605,427	4,223,155	874,587	3,314,295
Subjects	365,580	82,566	365,580	365,739	76,610	365,739
Events	82,555	20,879	82,555	81,914	19,029	81,914

***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.

Notes: Women’s models control for mother’s age, mother’s age squared, mother’s year of birth, parental age gap, and municipality fixed effects. Men’s models control for mother’s age, mother’s age squared, father’s year of birth, parental age gap, and municipality fixed effects. Table shows hazard ratios, with standard errors in parentheses. Model 1 is based on all exogamous unions, while the sample in Models 2 is restricted to sibling pairs. Model 3 presents the family-fixed-effects estimates for the entire sample. Ref. denotes the reference category.

Source: As for Table 1.

Figure 2 Relative third-birth risks by union type and sex composition of previous children, for three regional immigrant-origin groups, estimated from piecewise constant exponential models: Sweden, 1990–2009

Notes: Models control for mother’s age, mother’s age squared, parental age gap, period, and municipality fixed effects. 1B1G = one boy, one girl; 2B = two boys; 2G = two girls. Exogamy SW/IM = Swedish woman and immigrant man; Exogamy SM/IW = Swedish man and immigrant woman. Dashed vertical lines show the reference category: endogamous Swedish couples with a boy and a girl. Horizontal bars show 95 per cent confidence intervals. The x-axis is on a logarithmic scale.

Source: Author’s analysis of data from Swedish administrative registers (Statistics Sweden).

Figure 3 Theoretical expectations and empirical patterns of sex composition preferences for children in intermarriages, for three regional immigrant-origin groups with son preference

Notes:

 = no preference or one-of-each preference;

 = daughter preference;

 = son preference;

 = relative girl preference (as for the Swedish reference category);

 = relative son preference.

Source: As for Figure 1.