This talk presents a taster of some findings that Marion Burkimsher has presented at conferences but not taken further. Topics include:

• Comparing expectations with the reality of childbearing;
• What the fertility curve can tell us about the processes affecting the TFR;
• Trends in birth intervals and the mean age at birth of first and last child. 

She also looks at some niche questions, such as “Who has more children than their mother?” and, looking at cohort mortality, “What’s so special about people born in 1946?”; also which European countries have risen or fallen most in the happiness league? This talk aims to pique your interest so someone may take up the reins and go on to elaborate and disseminate the results.

Marion Burkimsher is a Geographer. Her PhD was in glaciology, but more recently she did a Masters in Demography in 2008. In recent years, she has been analysing demographic processes as an independent researcher, mining the data sets that are publicly available: the Human Fertility Database; Generations and Gender programme, the European Social Survey, the Human Mortality database, etc. She loves making graphs and analysing trends, especially when they change direction or show odd blips. In 2025, she relocated from the French/Swiss border to Hamilton, New Zealand and is becoming integrated in the research community of demographers “Down Under”. She gave presentations at the PANZ conference in Wellington last July; at the IUSSP conference in Brisbane immediately after, and at the Regional Studies Association conference at the University of Waikato in December.

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