Fertility decline during the demographic transition: socio-economic differences in the rural area of Bologna between 1819 and 1936 applying the nominative reconstitution and the own-children method

The study takes into account the socioeconomic differences in the reproductive behavior in the north-eastern suburban area of Bologna from the 1820s to the 1930s, considering two rural parishes during the whole nineteenth century and another sample of parishes bordering Bologna during the early decades of the twentieth century. Consequently the period in question continues up to the onset of the fertility decline, while important social, economic and demographic transformations were about to take place. Indeed, during the 1930s, the fertility decline in Italy was so evident and the national birth rates showed such evident signs of reduction that the Fascist regime promoted a policy to increase the number of births (Treves 2001).