Land, Education, and Reproduction: Changing Socioeconomic Differentials in a Rural Korean Village

This study investigates socioeconomic differentials in marriage and fertility during the Korean fertility transition in a rural village. These differentials have significant implications for understanding historical fertility patterns and the drivers of fertility decline. By analyzing population registers linked to land rosters and school records, we examine how land ownership and educational attainment were associated with fertility levels and the timing of marriage and fertility, and how these associations evolved across birth cohorts. We attempt to examine the changing relationships between two distinct measures of socioeconomic status—land ownership and education—and marriage and fertility. This approach provides critical insights into family formation patterns during the Korean demographic transition. The analyses reveal that fertility levels and timing were influenced by land ownership but not by educational attainment. Individuals whose husbands owned farmland tended to marry earlier and have more children compared to their landless counterparts with similar characteristics. This relationship remained consistent across birth cohorts. We discuss the implications of these findings, acknowledge the study’s limitations, and propose directions for future research.