This research has two main objectives. First, I aim to trace and explain variation in childlessness through time, space and across socio-economic groups in 18th- and 19th-century Belgium, and by expansion Western Europe. My second goal is to study how childlessness was experienced and coped with on an individual level. In this way, my research will provide more depth to our knowledge of reproductive behaviour in the past and put current levels and determinants of childlessness in a long-term perspective.