Geographic Similarities between First and Second Demographic Transitions in Italy

Renee Ellis, University of California, Irvine

The purpose of this study is to examine areas of early adoption of first demographic transition characteristics such as reduced marital fertility and proportions married and to compare them with areas of early adoption of second demographic transition characteristics such as increased cohabitation and extra marital births to discover geographic patterns of similarity. The country chosen for this study is Italy. Italy makes an ideal case study for this question because there are clear, documented geographic differences in adoption of first demographic transition characteristics by region and recent increases of cohabitation and extra marital births (ISTAT) allow us to examine emergent patterns of characteristics and compare them to earlier reigional patterns of first demographic characteristics. Results show second demographic transitions geographic patterns of adoption similar to first demographic transition patterns. There is a significant correlation between regional adopion of fertility rates and proportion married, and cohabitation and extra marital births.