Abstract This paper examines the determinants of age at first birth from an explicitly comparative perspective in the following Asian societies: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. The key structural variables have the same (or similar) effects in each of the groups examined. Education through primary school and beyond has a strong delaying effect on age at first birth in all eight populations. Difference of rural-urban origin does not affect the timing of motherhood in any of these societies. We also find a remarkably strong effect of shared cultural heritage. All the Confucian groups tend to behave similarly, as do the Muslim and Hindu groups.