As far as possible, Word tries to start footnotes on the same page as the footnote reference. If the entire footnote won't fit on that page, the balance will continue on the next page. Rarely, you'll encounter a situation where the footnote reference will be on one page and all of the content will be on the next page. IIRC, that only occurs when there is a conflict with space required to satisfy the widow/orphan settings for both the body text and the footnote text.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you for your reply. That's what I assumed, although I am encountering instances where there's only a single footnote on a page and it's being placed on the next page.