Tempo Effects on Period Fertility in Turkey: a Study from Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys

Turkey has been experiencing significant fertility decline since the 1950s. Increasing mean ages at childbearing have accompanied this decline, thus studies regarding tempo effects are necessary for Turkey. The main aim of this study is to reveal the tempo distortions in recent period fertility in Turkey as a whole and for different sub-groups by using an adjustment procedure. A procedure by Bongaarts and Feeney corrects period TFR for tempo distortions, using changes in mean ages at childbearing by birth order. The adjusted TFR reflects the level of fertility that would have been observed in the absence of changes in timing. Since vital registration system in Turkey does not provide necessary data for the method, the study employs data from two successive demographic surveys, TDHS-1998 and TDHS-2003. Findings show the existence of tempo distortions in period fertility in Turkey. Tempo distortions appear to be higher for women in higher fertility areas.