MPIDR Technical Report

A collection of "R" packages for the production of period fertility tables and some summary fertility indicators

Abstract

As part of the Human Fertility Database project, a standardised methodology has been developed for the production of period and cohort fertility tables and other fertility indicators. Packages have been implemented for the free statistical computing language and environment "R" in order to allow other researchers easy access to these methods. A previous Technical Report (TR-2010-007, Nash et al. 2010) introduced the package for the production of cohort fertility tables. This Technical Report introduces four further packages which, when used together, enable the calculation of five basic fertility indicators (age-specific and cumulative fertility rates, total fertility rate, mean age at birth and cohort parity progression ratios) and period fertility tables from the basic inputs of birth counts, estimated female exposure and, where available, census or register data of female population by parity.