This report presents statistics on the fertility of women in the United States as measured by the number of their own children under 5 years old present in the household and also some data on own children 5 to 9 years old. The data are shown by demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the women and their families. Among the characteristics shown are: age, race, nativity, country of origin, education, marital status, age at first marriage, occupation, Income In 1959, and Housing Characteristics. Most of the statistics are based on a 5-percent sample of the population enumerated in the Eighteenth Decennial Census of Population, taken as of April 1, 1960. Some data on characteristics of housing are based on a 4-percent sample, as specified in the headnotes of the tables.
Statistics on women by number of own children under 5 years old, by age, color, and marital status of women, are presented in chapter D of 1960 Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population, for States and their urban and rural parts and for standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA's) of 250,000 or more. Ratios of population under 5 to the total female population 15 to 49 years old are shown in summary tables in chapter B, for SMSA's urbanized areas, urban places and counties.
Data on women by number of children ever born are presented in chapters C and D of Volume I and in the Volume II report women by number of children ever born, and will appear in the forthcoming Volume II report Childspacing. Other Volume II reports with some data on fertility presented in relation to the main subject are the reports on socioeconomic status, the labor re-serve, and Employment Status and work experience. Volume III reports with some data on fertility are those on State economic areas, size of place, standard metropolitan statistical areas, and type of place.
Data on households and families appear in chapters B, C, and D of Volume I, and in the Volume II reports on families and on persons by family characteristics.
The report 1950 Census of Population, Volume U, Special Reports, Part 5, chapter C, Fertility, presented national statistics on number of own children under 5 years old and on number of children ever born, for women by age, color, marital status, and urban-rural residence, in relation to duration of marriage, labor force status of the woman, years of school completed by the woman, and major occupation group of husband in the experienced labor force. The report also presented data on own children under 5 years old for women with Spanish surname in five Southwestern States.
Current Population Reports
Data on women by number of own children under 5 years old, by social and economic characteristics, were published from surveys made in June 1946, April 1947, and April 1952. Beginning in I968, the Bureau of the Census plans to publish annual data of this type. Other information on fertility has also been published in current population reports. Data on women by number of children ever born have been published at two- or three-year intervals since 1954. Data on childspacing based on birth dates of children ever born have been published from the August 1959 survey.
Availability of Unpublished Data
No data other than those shown were prepared for the present report. However, the data represent consolidations of detailed tallies that are still stored on magnetic tapes. The detailed tallies were prepared as an intermediate step for further electronic computer processing, mainly for a monograph in preparation under the sponsorship of the Community and Family Study Center, University of Chicago. The detailed tallies involved such simultaneous cross-classification as numbers of women and of their own children under 5 and 5 to 9 years old for 4 regions by 5 urban-rural residence groups by race-nativity groups of women by 8 age groups of women by 7 educational groups of women by 3 marital status groups of women. The specifications of the detailed tally tapes can be made available on request, and tabulations of these tapes can be made on a reimbursable basis. Inquiries concerning unpublished data should be transmitted to the Bureau as soon as possible because tape records are not maintained indefinitely. Request for unpublished data, giving a specific description of the figures desired, may be made by writing to the Chief, Population Division, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. 20233.
Some of the tables in the present report show data only for the United States, urbanized areas, and the South. Data for that part of the Nation outside urbanized areas and for the North and West (combined) can be derived by subtraction.
