Acknowledgements

Creating the Human Fertility Database is a very challenging endeavor, and we are very grateful to all our colleagues and collaborators from various research institutions and statistical agencies for their extensive help.

Researchers who contributed to the development of the HFD

Joshua R. Goldstein (the former MPIDR Director and the founding director of the HFD), Vladimir Shkolnikov (the former director of the HFD), Tomáš Sobotka, Aiva Jasilioniene, Dmitri Jdanov, Evgueni Andreev (who was working with the Laboratory of Demographic Data during 2005-2011), Dimiter Philipov (VID), and Kryštof Zeman took part in extensive discussions on the HFD design and methodology. Aiva Jasilioniene, Dmitri Jdanov and Vladimir Shkolnikov wrote the core part of the Methods Protocol. Dimiter Philipov together with German Rodriguez (Princeton University, US) developed a method for splitting 5-year birth counts into single years of age. Kryštof Zeman developed an algorithm for transforming census-based distribution of female population by parity to the 1st of January and for obtaining data on live births from total births counts. Kryštof Zeman and Tomáš Sobotka proposed a basic system of data quality checks and documented the estimation procedure for obtaining age and parity-specific distribution of the female population.

Dmitri Jdanov, Aiva Jasilioniene, and Evgueni Andreev wrote computer programs for various data adjustments and the computation of output fertility indicators and fertility tables. More specifically, Dmitri Jdanov developed programs for distributing births with unknown age and/or unknown birth order, splitting lower and upper open-ended age intervals, splitting five-year age groups, and for splitting one-year age groups into Lexis triangles. Aiva Jasilioniene and Evgueni Andreev developed programs for further computation of fertility rates, cohort and period fertility tables, and aggregated cohort and period fertility indicators. Edward J. Nash was working with the Laboratory of Demographic Data during 2010-2011 and incorporated all the HFD programs into one integrated package written in R, generating input and output files as well as producing data quality checks.

Dmitri Jdanov built the internal HFD website and with the assistance of Evgueni Soroko (Institute of Demography at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow) created the official HFD web application for the first HFD website.

Pavel Grigoriev contributed to the improvement of the methods used in the HFD.

Aiva Jasilioniene and Kryštof Zeman are HFD country specialists, responsible for contacts and communications with data providers, institutions and country experts from specific countries.

Maria Winkler-Dworak (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, University of Vienna) is contributing to the development of the Short-Term Fertility Fluctuations (STFF) by producing calendar and seasonally adjusted monthly birth estimates and monthly TFRs.

Jude Mikal assisted the MPIDR team with the preparation of input data files in 2008-2009 during his tenure at the MPIDR. Dora Kostova was part of the MPIDR team during 2010-2015, acting as one of the HFD country specialists and a substitute Project Coordinator. Olga Grigoriev joined the project as an HFD country specialist in the period 2015-2019. Sebastian Klüsener was one of the HFD country specialists and was engaged in the HFD project during his MPIDR tenure in 2014-2018. Inna Danilova and Ainhoa Alustiza Galarza worked for the HFD project as country specialists during 2020-2021. Ainhoa Alustiza Galarza also coordinated collection of monthly birth data for the STFF series and drafted a first version of the STFF metadata file. László Németh was one of the HFD country specialists during 2020-2023. László Németh developed the STFF visualization toolkit.

Karolin Kubisch (together with Sigrid Gellers-Barkmann until 2017) is responsible within the MPIDR team for data search, collection, formatting and preparation of data and documents (especially for the Human Fertility Collection), and partially also for communication with national statistical offices.

Jonas Günther, Thomas Fritze, Raul Janetzky, Anne Jenzen, Anett Loth, Jörn Lübke, Anne Range, Susen Schmidt, Malte Künzel, Hannah Isabell Tolk, and Leonard Linder were Student Assistants for the MPIDR team, helping with reorganizing data, data search, and data transcription from paper to electronic format. Caroline Berghammer (VID) designed the HFD information flyer. Fynn Jakob Lux (MPIDR) is Student Assistant, helping with updating the STFF monthly birth data series.

External individual contributors

The HFD project greatly relies on the network that includes statistical agencies, other data holders, and country experts that help us in locating, documenting and accessing various data, understanding their origins, quality, and other important details. We thankfully acknowledge the contributions of the following researchers and institutions:

Austria

Belarus

Belgium

Bulgaria

Canada

Chile

Croatia

Czechia

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Republic of Korea

Russia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

U.K.

Ukraine

U.S.A.