Kieron Barclay

1 INTRODUCTION The fact that individuals with lower socioeconomic status have higher mortality rates has been well documented in social science research (Galama et al., 2018; Hummer & Lariscy, 2011; Xue et al., 2021). Educational attainment is the most commonly used indicator of socio-economic status in studies of health and mortality.

With a total fertility rate of 0.81 in 2021, South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world. Within a generally declining trend, and very low levels globally, Jolene Tan finds that patterns in the timing of childbearing and the number of children in this country depend strongly on women’s educational level. The implications may be unfavourable.

We would like to thank audiences at the Stockholm University Demography Unit for useful feedback. We would particularly like to thank Stefanie Möllborn, Martin Kolk, and Martin Hällsten for helpful comments. Kieron Barclay was supported by a Pro Futura Scientia XIV fellowship awarded by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.