Het geboorteniveau van de Rooms-Katholieken in het Drostambt Tudderen

Samenvatting

In his study concerning the birth level of the Dutch Roman Catholics (Leiden, 1954), F. van Heek treats the r between religion & birth rate. The religious influence on birth rate is seen as operating in 2 ways: through pure ecclesiastical & socorg'al channels. To demonstrate the diff in influence of each of these components, a soc laboratory or an area where Catholic soc org's are operating without the church is needed. Tudderen, a territory at the Dutch-German frontier near Sittard, placed temporarily under Dutch gov after the war, is such an area. Here the Dutch Roman Catholic clergy has no jurisdiction, but a good many Dutch Catholic soc org's are present. In this area the birth rate rose from 19.5 in 1950 to 25.0 in 1959, while the birth rate in the adjoining German area dropped from 16.3 to 12.9. This may be an indication that the soc-org'al component of the religious influence has a far greater influence than the pure ecclesiastical one. AA.