Vegard Skirbekk is a social scientist and an expert on global demographic change. He has published over 250 scientific articles and frequently presents to policy makers around the world. He is Principal Investigator of the Fertility and Health Research Centre at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, and Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University in New York, USA.

Provides a balanced, evidence-based overview of global fertility in the past, present and future

Considers fertility from multiple perspectives including biological, economic, socio-cultural and evolutionary

Shows how fertility rates affect so many of the most important questions in the public arena today

Introduction.- Measuring Fertility.- How Many Children Can Humans Have Biologically?.- Fertility from the Dawn of Humanity through the 19th Century.- The Demographic Transition: Fewer Deaths and Fewer Births, Eventually.-Contemporary Global Fertility.The New Have-Nots: Childlessness in the 21st Century.- More Education, Fewer Children.- An Era of Choice: Childbearing Has Become More Planned.- Fertility Preferences: How Many Children Do People Want?.- Delaying Parenthood, For Better and For Worse.- Finding a Mate: Contemporary Partnership and Conception.- Money Matters: The Economics of Fertility.- Fertility in the Aftermath of Disaster.- New Times, Old Beliefs: Religion and Contemporary Fertility.- Contemporary Fertility from an Evolutionary Perspective: Are the Fittest Still Surviving?.- How Low Will It Go? Projecting Future Fertility.- Fertility, Population Growth and Population Composition.- FertilityPolicies: Past, Present, and Future Directions.- Low - But Not Too Low - Fertility is a Good Thing.