Natural selection on reproductive timing varies by education in twentieth-century Estonia.

ABSTRACT: This register-based study investigates how natural selection acts on educational attainment and reproductive timing among Estonians born between 1925 and 1977. Women with primary education consistently achieved the highest reproductive success throughout the study period, whereas a positive educational gradient in reproduction emerged among men born since the 1950s, resulting in sexually antagonistic selection on educational attainment. Men with tertiary education had higher reproductive success than other men, despite initiating reproduction later. The lowest-educated women exhibited the strongest selection for early reproduction and the earliest start of reproduction throughout the study period. These women and the least-educated men also experienced the strongest selection for delayed r

SUBMITTER: Meitern R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12645315 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature