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Child Adoption in Western Europe, 1900–2015

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Cliometrics of the Family

Part of the book series: Studies in Economic History ((SEH))

Abstract

This chapter is a first step toward a comparative history of child adoption law and practices in Western Europe since child adoption became legal in Germany (1900), Sweden (1917), France (1923), England and Wales (1927), and Italy (1942). Relying mainly on long-time series from these five countries, I analyze the incidence and the developments of domestic adoptions of both unrelated and related children and more recent developments in intercountry adoption. In most Western European countries, child adoption incidence increased from the early twentieth century to approximately the 1970s, likely because of rising demand for child adoption. Child adoption incidence has decreased since the 1970s because of a fall in adoptable children from both domestic and foreign backgrounds. In addition, the people of Sweden and England and Wales have long adopted children much more frequently than those of Germany, let alone France and Italy. The history of child adoption in Western Europe thus reflects major demographic trends since 1900 as well as a North-South gradient in child adoption incidence.

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Acknowledgments

For their precious help, I wish to thank Christina Benninghaus, Francesca Caroccia, E. Wayne Carp, Nina Dethloff, Vincent Gourdon, Joachim Haas, Juliette Halifax, Juho Härkönen, Tobias Hübinette, Jenny Keating, Silvia Leek, Philippa Levine, Jörg Lewe, Cecilia Lindgren, Li Ma, Agnès Martial, Christoph Neukirchen, David Reher, Paola Ronfani, Peter Selman, Julie Selwyn, June Thoburn, and the anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Gemass, CNRS, Paris, France

    Jean-François Mignot

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  1. Jean-François Mignot
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Correspondence to Jean-François Mignot .

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  1. BETA/CNRS, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Claude Diebolt

  2. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Auke Rijpma , Sarah Carmichael , Selin Dilli  & Charlotte Störmer , ,  & 

Appendix

Appendix

Table 14.4 Characteristics of Western European countries
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Fig. 14.6
A line graph plots data versus years. The lines plotted for Sweden, Germany, France, England-Wales, and Italy have decreasing trends with fluctuations.

Live births per 1000 people in Western Europe, 1900–2010. Source: Ined (2016)

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Fig. 14.7
A line graph plots % values versus years. The lines plotted for Sweden, Germany, France, England-Wales, and Italy have upward trends with fluctuations.

Share of births which are illegitimate in Western Europe, 1900–2014. Source: Ined (2016), Eurostat (2016), Statistiska Centralbyrån (1969, p. 106)

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Fig. 14.8
A line graph plots fluctuating lines for West Germany, Sweden, France, England-Wales, and Italy. Except for Sweden, the lines for the rest of the countries have upward trends.

Share of women who remained childless in Western Europe, per birth cohort 1930–1965. Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 2016

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Fig. 14.9
A line graph plots increasing lines with fluctuations for Germany, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The values are overlapping at some points.

Gross domestic product per capita in Western Europe (in 1990 International Geary-Khamis dollars), 1900–2008. Source: Maddison 2003

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Fig. 14.10
A line graph plots % values versus years. The estimated start and end values are as follows. Germany (1900, 40%) and (2010, 75%). Sweden (1900, 20%) and (2010, 85%). France (1900, 35%) and (2010, 87%). United Kingdom (1900, 65%) and (2010, 80%). Italy (1900, 35%) and (2010, 70%).

Urbanization rate in Western Europe, 1900–2015. Sources: Data on 1900–1913 are from Bardet and Dupâquier (1998, p. 221) (share of the population living in cities of 5000 inhabitants or more); data on 1950–2015 are from United Nations Population Division 2015b (share of the population living in urban areas)

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Fig. 14.11
A line graph plots % values versus years. It plots wavy fluctuating lines with decreasing trends for West Germany, France, and United Kingdom and with increasing trends for Italy, and Sweden.

Share of 15–44 women who take the contraceptive pill in Western Europe, 1968–1977. Source: Leridon et al. (1987)

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Fig. 14.12
A line graph plots wavy fluctuating lines with increasing trends for Germany, Sweden, France, England-Wales, and Italy. The lines for Sweden and Italy have the highest and lowest set of values, respectively.

Total divorce rate in Western Europe, 1946–2003. Source: Ined (2016)

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Fig. 14.13
A line graph plots data versus years. The graph plots a short fluctuating line. Some of the estimated values are as follows. (1950, 1), (1960, 3), and (1970, 1).

Inter-country adoptions of Western-German children (by foreigners) per 100,000 people in West Germany, 1950–1973. Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (1977), p. 64. Field: from 1950 to 1953, inter-country adoptions from West Berlin are not included

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Mignot, JF. (2019). Child Adoption in Western Europe, 1900–2015. In: Diebolt, C., Rijpma, A., Carmichael, S., Dilli, S., Störmer, C. (eds) Cliometrics of the Family. Studies in Economic History. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99480-2_14

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