Demographic research shows that, in Europe, fertility takes place later and is lower in cities than in rural areas. One might expect fertility to be delayed in urban areas because of longer periods in education and enhanced career opportunities. We, therefore, examine how prevalent later fertility (35+ and 40+) is along the urban–rural axis, and whether differences can be explained by economic, cultural and compositional factors. We estimate multilevel random coefficient models, employing aggregated Eurostat data of 1328 Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques (NUTS) 3 and 270 NUTS 2 regions from 28 European countries. The urban–rural gradient in later fertility considerably diminishes once factors describing the economic environment, family and gender norms as well as population composition are accounted for. The higher prevalence of later fertility in cities is particularly associated with higher female education, greater wealth and a higher share of employment in high-technology sectors.

中文翻译：

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解释欧洲后期生育率的城乡梯度

人口统计研究表明，在欧洲，城市地区的生育率晚于农村地区，且生育率较低。人们可能会预期，由于受教育时间延长和职业机会增加，城市地区的生育率会延迟。因此，我们研究城乡轴上晚育率（35+和40+）的普遍程度，以及差异是否可以用经济、文化和构成因素来解释。我们使用来自 28 个欧洲国家的 1328 个 Nomenclature desunités territoriales statistiques (NUTS) 3 和 270 个 NUTS 2 区域的欧盟统计局汇总数据来估计多级随机系数模型。一旦考虑到经济环境、家庭和性别规范以及人口构成等因素，后期生育率的城乡梯度就会大大缩小。城市晚育率较高与女性受教育程度较高、财富较多以及高科技行业就业比例较高密切相关。