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China’s Fertility Transition through Regional Space

Using GIS and Census Data for a Spatial Analysis of Historical Demography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

G. William Skinner ,
Mark Henderson  and
Yuan Jianhua
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Extract

Key features of reproductive behavior in China vary systematically through space and time. In this article we present an analysis of fertility change in regional space, using a 1% household sample from China’s 1990 population census. Elsewhere,we use the same data to analyze reproductive strategizing, but here we pursue the big picture with a straightforward analysis that takes reported births as an uncomplicated indicator of fertility.The article has three objectives: first, to introduce a novel, multilevel spatial model of regional structure constructed using a geographic information system (GIS); second, to demonstrate the potential for longitudinal data derived from onetime censuses to contribute to historical demography in conjunction with regional analysis; and third, to document the manner in which China’s fertility transition has unfolded in regional space.

Type
Special Issue: Historical GIS: The Spatial Turn in Social Science History
Information
Social Science History , Volume 24 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Historical GIS: The Spatial Turn in Social Science History , fall 2000 , pp. 613 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2000 

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