Childspacing (Volume II, Part III - Subject Reports)
This report presents national statistics on births to women by successive ages and successive intervals since marriage, on intervals between births, and on birth rates for past years. Some regional statistics are also presented, notably for the South. The data are shown by demographic, social, and economic characteristics of women and their families. Among the characteristics shown are color, marital status, age at first marriage, education, and labor force participation of women, and occupation and income of the husband. 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.
The tabulations are based on the fertility histories of women as obtained from reported birth dates of their children who were present in the home and from estimates of birth dates for those children who had died or left home. In order to keep the number of children with estimated birth dates to a reasonably snail proportion of all children ever born, the data in this report are generally limited to women who were not so old or married so long that many of their children had grown up and left home. In an effort to simplify the Electronic Processing and processing problems, a few farther restrictions were employed. Hence, the numbers of women by age in 1960 or by date of marriage as shown in the present report are slightly below those of women of comparable age or date of marriage as shown in other reports of the 1960 Census. This fact Joes not seriously limit the usefulness of the present data for demographic analysis.
Statistics on women by number of children ever born and by number of own children under 5 years old are presented in chapters C and 3 of 4.Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population, for States, urban and rural, for counties, and for urban places of 10,000 or more. Extensive data on fertility by social and economic characteristics of women appear in the Series PC(2)-3A report women by number of children ever born and in forthcoming Series PC(2)-3C report women by children under 5 years old. Those reports present fertility data as of the time of the census rather than longitudinal data as in the present report. Other Series PC(2) reports with some data on fertility presented in relation to the main subject are the reports on socioeconomic status, the labor reserve, and Employment Status and work experience. Series PC(3) reports with some data on fertility are those on State economic areas, size of place, standard metropolitan statistical areas, and type of place.
The report 1950 Census of Population, Volume IV, Special Reports. Part 5, chapter C, Fertility, presented national statistics on number of children ever born and on number of own children under 5 years old, 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 civilian labor force. The report also presented data on children ever born for States and their urban and rural parts, and for persons of Spanish surname in five Southwestern States. An appendix presented material on quality of data.
Additional material on children ever born by duration of marriage was presented in 1950 Census of Population, Series PC-14, No. 22.
Current Population Reports
Data on fertility are occasionally published in Current Population Reports, Series P-20, usually at 2- or 3-year intervals. These data are based on the Current Population Survey, a monthly sample of households. For example, the report Series P-20, No. 108, "Marriage, Fertility, and Childspacing: August 1959," presents data on number of children ever born and also data on cumulative fertility at successive ages and marriage durations of cohorts of women in past years, derived from data on date of birth of each child and date of woman's first marriage.
Availability of Unpublished Data
During test runs of tabulations for the present report, data were obtained for white women in the Northeast Region, in detail corresponding to the contents of about half of the tables in the present report. They can be made available for the cost of Electronic Processing and processing. Requests 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. Inquiries concerning unpublished data should be transmitted to the Bureau as soon as possible because such materials are not maintained indefinitely.
