The family formation postponement and the women increase in educational enrollment in Mexico and Spain

Elsa Ortíz, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo
Daniel Devolder, Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED), UAB

Generally speaking, the impact that education has on family formation patterns manifests in two ways: the change of preferences associated with getting a higher level of education and educational enrolment associated to the postponement of the formation of a family. So, the present study aims to be a scientific contribution to the second way. The aim of this investigation is to determine the contribution of rising enrolment to the postponement change in fertility tempo at which two events take place: the first union and the first motherhood in Mexico and Spain. In addition, this study focuses on the age at completing education rather than on educational attainment. The data source used for Mexico is the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics conducted in 2009 and for Spain we used the Fertility, Family and Values Survey conducted in 2006. The first results show that the age at completing education is a more important point in the family formation in Mexico than in Spain.