Recent fertility decline in Dariusleut Hutterites: an extension of Eaton and Mayer's Hutterite fertility study

A church book that has been routinely updated by the Dariusleut Hutterites enabled us to update some fertility tables presented by Eaton and Mayer in the 1950s. The age-specific (nuptial) fertility rates and the total fertility rates (TFRs) were calculated for every 5-year period from 1901-1905 to 1981-1985. Our calculations for Dariusleut, one of the three sects of the Hutterites, gave slightly lower age-specific nuptial fertility rates before 1951 compared with the figures given by Eaton and Mayer (1953) for all Hutterites in the corresponding time periods. The recent decline in Hutterite fertility, especially at higher maternal ages, was confirmed in this study. The TFR, given as a sum of 5-year-grouped age-specific nuptial fertility rates from 15 to 49 years of maternal age, was higher (8.80-9.83) in the years 1946-1965, but it declined to 8.13 in 1966-1970, to 7.22 in 1971-1975, to 6.39 in 1976-1980, and to 6.29 in 1981-1985. For the age groups 35-39 years and older the age-specific nuptial fertility rate in 1981-1985 decreased by more than 50% compared with the rate during the peak period of 1951-1955. The probability of a married woman having a live birth at each age from 15 to 49 years still peaked around the twentieth year of life, as found by Eaton and Mayer (1953), but it decreased more rapidly from the late twenties among the recently married women, most evidently in their thirties.