The Human Fertility Collection (HFC) has been designed to supplement the Human Fertility Database (HFD) and to provide the international research community with free and user-friendly access to a wide range of fertility data that, for various reasons, cannot be included in the HFD.
Differently from the HFD, which includes only high-quality data based on official vital statistics, the HFC features estimates from diverse data sources, including survey data and data reconstructions by individual researchers or research teams. The HFC provides many alternatives to official fertility indicators and is not limited to continuous time series. The flexibility of the HFC also allows to expand the geographical coverage of data to less developed parts of the world as well as to feature historical data and estimates. However, due to the variability in data origins and estimation methods used in the original data sources, the level of data comparability and reliability is sometimes lower than that of the HFD. Therefore, users must be cautious when using these data for their research.
At present, the HFC includes the following period fertility data specified for all the birth orders combined and by birth order (when available) provided in a standardized format: age-specific fertility rates, cumulative fertility rates, total fertility rates, and mean ages at birth. For a selected number of countries, these data are also available for males. The HFC data can be downloaded either as a single zipped file for all countries or by country. Data for all birth orders combined and data by birth order are available for download separately. Male fertility data are also downloadable separately.
The HFC is being continuously supplemented with newly assembled data. More countries and additional fertility dimensions (e.g., region of residence, marital status) are planned to be added in the future. The database is being developed and updated on a rolling basis. Suggestions and submissions of new data to the HFC are very welcome.