Register based fertility research

What can we learn about today’s fertility in Europe from registers?

How can we increase accessibility of register data across Europe?

Register and other administrative data are core data sources of demographic and sociological research on contemporary fertility trends and patterns. Currently the use of register data for the purposes of fertility research remains largely focused on the Nordic countries, but these data are becoming increasingly accessible to researchers across Europe.

The EAPS Working Group on Register-Based Fertility Research aims at supporting this momentum of change, that is facilitating the use of existing and emerging register data sources for the purpose of studying fertility. Thereby the working group aims at contributing to high-quality and up-to-date research on fertility trends and patterns particularly in the context of contemporary Europe. It aims at providing a platform for discussing fertility research based on register and other administrative data and to facilitate networking opportunities among register data users, as well as between users and those interested in these data. It also offers a forum for discussing issues related to availability and challenges with access and content of these data. The group promotes cross-country and cross-regional analysis, and aims at including researchers from different career stages. The group activities are supported by the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR).

If you are interested in being part of this Working Group, please send an email to jessica.nisen@utu.fi

Events

Upcoming event

Understanding recent fertility trends in Europe: what can register data tell us?

Annual meeting of the EAPS Working Group on Register-based Fertility Research, 17-18 November

On November 17–18, 2025, the EAPS Working Group on Register-based Fertility Research will organize a meeting at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. We invite researchers at all career stages to discuss the recent developments in fertility in Europe, building on work with register and register-linked data. The meeting will start in the morning of the 17^th of November and will end in the beginning of the afternoon on the next day. More information and a call for abstracts will follow in spring. In the meantime, mark the date in your calendars!

Downloads

Program Webinar January 23 2025

EAPS Register-based Fertility WG meeting 2023 program

Previous events

The 2023 annual meeting took place on 11 October 2023 at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in Wiesbaden, Germany. The meeting consisted of talks, informal exchange, and networking and was held in connection to the conference Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups: Current Research and New Approaches in Times of Crises, October 12 and 13 at BiB in Wiesbaden (Germany).

On 12 April 2023 the Working Group organized a meeting to enable dialogue between European and North American fertility researchers working with administrative data in connection to the Population Association of America PAA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

The 2022 meeting of the Working Group was held December 15-16, 2022, at the MPIDR in Rostock, Germany.

Comparative research projects within the working group

The Working Group provides a platform for a number of ongoing or planned comparative fertility research projects listed below, which are based on register or register-like data. The respective project leader and her/his contact information is mentioned next to the project. These projects fall under two broad themes 1) Investigation of fertility trends and patterns across and within countries in Europe, and 2) Investigation of fertility trends and patterns across countries in Europe.