[Infertility and unwanted childlessness. An increasing problem?]

The median age at the birth of the first child has increased by almost three years from the second half of the 1970s and is now about 25 years. However, first-time mothers over 35 years of age are still rare (below 3%). Less than 10% of Norwegian women born during the period 1935-50 are still childless. We assume that 4% are infecund, which means they are unable to give birth. 5% can probably have a child if they wish, and are thus classified as fecund. For about 1%, the fecundity status is unknown. According to some media, there has been a sharp increase or even a boom in infecundity in recent years. Neither our study nor studies from the USA confirm that impression. The proportion of infecund women is approximately the same as in the 1970s. Our analysis is based on two surveys, The Family and Occupation Survey 1988 and The Fertility Survey 1977. Both surveys are based on samples representative for the whole country, and were conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics. About 4,000 women took part in each survey.