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1. Introduction Before the onset of fertility decline, individuals of higher social standing have frequently been identified to have more children compared to individuals of lower social standing (Betzig 1986, Razi 1980, Sogner, Randsborg and Fure 1984). With a decline in fertility levels, however, high status has often been found to be associated with relatively low fertility (e.g., Coale and Watkins 1986, Cochrane 1979, Haines 1992, Jejeebhoy 1995), although some studies argue that the fertility-status relation remain positive (Fieder et al. 2005, Hull and Hull 1977, Stys 1957, Wrong 1958). Italy is an example of a country where the status-fertility relation switched from positive to negative. Livi Bacci (1977) studies three Italian cities from the 15th to the 18th centuries and find a positive relation between status and childbearing outcomes for all of them. For example in Florence in 1427, poor 30-34 year old women had 3.0 children; the middle income group had 3.6, while the richest had 4.9 children. Observations from 20th century Italy, however, show a negative relation between fertility and occupational rank/educational length (FFS 2006, Jones 1982). Bardet (1983) is a rare study that actually shows how the status-fertility relation between identical groups’ switches from positive to negative over time. Bardet studies marital period fertility of four social classes from 1670 to 1789 in Rouen, France. The two lower classes, the Artisans and the Ouvriers, had about 6 children in 1670, decreased their fertility slightly first from around 1730, ending at around 5 children in 1789. However, the higher classes; the Notables, Boutiquiers and Employés, had more than 7 children in 1670, but substantially decreased their fertility from around 1700 and by 1789 had only around 4 children. In spite of the considerable academic interest in the status-fertility relation, there exists no study that reviews more than a fraction of the available evidence. In this investigation a dataset several times larger than the ones used so far is collected.2 The dataset is used to study the impact of fertility variation by status over time and during the demographic transition. I investigate to which extent fertility decline is initiated by elites and later imitated by the rest of the population. I also test whether the status-fertility differences eventually converge when fertility levels reach replacement levels and below.