`` `` it is known that the fertility decline in western europe started almost everywhere in the mid-1960s , that the national trends have run in parallel , and that the reason was essentially the decrease in the numbers of large families , or even their complete disappearance . however , for want of comparable data , international comparisons are often limited to annual fertility indices , and do not distinguish changes due to reduced family size from those which are the result of changes in fertility timing ... . [ the author presents , ] for a broad range of countries , an analysis by cohort and birth order . this makes it possible to measure the fertility decline in more detail , to compare its amplitude in the various parts of europe , and to study its mechanisms . '' ''
C0002838
a
C0015176
europ