2012 Fertility in Women P20-575

Attachment B2

Fertility of Women in the United States: 2012
Population Characteristics
By Lindsay M. Monte and Renee R. Ellis
Issued July 2014
P20-575

INTRODUCTION
This report describes the fertility patterns of women
in the United States, patterns which have changed significantly over time. The average number of children
ever born has dropped from more than three children
per woman in 1976 to about two children per woman
in 2012 (see Figure 1). Recent years have also seen

drops in adolescent childbearing and increases in nonmarital births.1, 2
These changes in fertility are important because recent
research suggests that women’s childbearing is related
1
J.A. Martin, B.E. Hamilton, J.K. Osterman, et al., “Births: Final Data
for 2012,” National Vital Statistics Reports, National Center for Health
Statistics, Hyattsville, MD, 2013, Vol. 62, No. 9.
2
S.J. Ventura, “Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the
United States,” NCHS data brief, National Center for Health Statistics,
Hyattsville, MD, 2009, No. 18.

Figure 1.

Children Ever Born Per 1,000 Women Aged 40 to 44: 1976–2012
Children born per 1,000 women
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0

1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1976–2012.

U.S. Department of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

census.gov

1996

2000

2004

2008

2012

to their rates of employment, their
educational attainment, and their
economic well-being.3, 4, 5 Furthermore, other research connects the
circumstances into which a child is
born to that child’s later outcomes,
including their likelihood of living
in a single-parent household and
their academic achievement.6, 7 This
report utilizes fertility data collected in the June 2012 Supplement
to the Current Population Survey
(CPS), as well as the 2012 American
Community Survey (ACS), to discuss these and other trends.8
This report has three sections:
cumulative fertility, births in the
last year, and relationship status
at first birth. Fertility patterns are
shown by women’s race, ethnicity,
age, citizenship, and employment
status, as well as their state of
residence. This report also examines new topics, such as women’s
marital status at the time of their
first births, the completed fertility
of women up to age 50, and the
fertility patterns of young women.

HIGHLIGHTS
Some highlights of the report are:
• Births to adolescents continued
to decline.
• More than one in five women
with a birth in the past 12
3
A.R. Miller, “The Effects of Motherhood
Timing on Career Path,” Journal of Population
Economics, 2009, 24: 1071–1100.
4
M.M. Marni, “Women’s Educational Attainment and the Timing of Entry Into Parenthood,” American Sociological Review, 49(4),
1984, pp. 491–511.
5
A. Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood:
Why the Most Important Job in the World
Is Still the Least Valued, Henry Hold and
Company, LLC, New York, NY, 2001.
6
Z. Redd, T.S. Karver, D. Murphy, et al.,
“Two Generations in Poverty: Status and
Trends Among Parents and Children in the
United States, 2000–2010,” Child Trends
Research Brief, Washington, DC, 2011,
Publication #2011-25.
7
K.A. Moore, Z. Redd, M. Burkhauser,
et al., “Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Options,” Child Trends
Research Brief, Washington, DC, 2009,
Publication #2009-11.
8
For more information about these data
sources, see “About the Data.”

2

months reported at the time of
the survey that they were living
in someone else’s home.
• The majority of first births occur
in marriage, as they have for
decades, but the most recent
cohort of young mothers is much
more likely to have had their first
birth in a cohabiting relationship
than in marriage.

CUMULATIVE FERTILITY
Using data from the CPS’s June
2012 interview, we can examine
the total number of children born
to women aged 15 to 50 and how
the number of children ever born
varies between groups.
In June 2012, 75.4 million women
in the United States were aged
15 to 50, and 59 percent of them
were mothers (see Table 1). Of
all women aged 15 to 50, 17.2
percent had one child, 23.1 percent
had two children, and 18.5 percent
had three or more children.
The prevalence of both large families and childlessness (defined as
not having given birth to any children) are not uniform across racial
groups or by Hispanic origin (see
Table 1).9 Hispanic women aged 15
to 50 have lower rates of childlessness (35.3 percent) than do women
in any other group, while Asian
women of the same age have the
highest rates of childlessness (46.1
percent). Forty-three percent of
non-Hispanic White women and 39
percent of Black women are childless. Hispanic women aged 15 to
50 have the highest percentages of
women with three or more children
(25.2 percent), followed by Black
women (21.3 percent).

Definitions
Birth rate: Number of children
born per 1,000 women over
a given year (birth rates allow
for comparisons of the number
of births across populations of
different sizes).
Childlessness: Not having
given birth to any children.
Children ever born: Number
of children a woman has given
birth to.
Cohabitation, cohabiting:
Defined as living with a romantic partner to whom the person
is not married (i.e., a boyfriend, girlfriend, or unmarried
partner).
Cohort: A group of people
who experience the same life
event at roughly the same time
(for example, in this report,
women who had their first
child at roughly the same time).
Completed fertility: Number
of children a woman has given
birth to when she completes
childbearing.
Cumulative fertility: Total
number of children ever born
to a woman at the time of the
survey, regardless of whether
she will have more children in
the future.
Replacement-level fertility:
The number of children each
woman would need to give
birth to in order to keep
the national population the
same size in the subsequent
generation.

9
This report will refer to the White-alone
population as White, the Black-alone population as Black, the Asian-alone population as
Asian, and the White-alone, non-Hispanic
population as non-Hispanic White unless
otherwise noted.

U.S. Census Bureau

Table 1.

Children Ever Born Per 1,000 Women 15 to 50 Years Old by Age, Race, and Hispanic
Origin: June 2012—Con.
(Numbers in thousands)
Percent distribution of women
by number of children ever born2

Number of
women

Children
ever born
per 1,000
women

Margin of
error1
(±)

Total

AGE
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75,392
10,351
10,909
10,437
10,324
9,709
10,516
13,145

1,297
68
421
955
1,563
1,990
1,998
1,982

12
4
12
24
36
46
44
39

RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
White alone
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

56,951
7,673
8,078
7,825
7,719
7,280
8,055
10,319

1,291
60
387
944
1,553
1,965
1,987
1,963

White alone, non-Hispanic
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44,445
5,728
6,157
5,984
5,899
5,571
6,472
8,633

Black alone
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Asian alone
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Characteristic

None

One
child

Two
children

Three
or more
children

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

41.3
94.9
71.4
49.4
28.2
17.2
15.1
16.8

17.2
4.0
18.0
21.6
21.6
17.7
18.9
18.1

23.1
0.8
8.5
18.1
28.4
33.8
34.9
35.1

18.5
0.4
2.2
11.0
21.9
31.3
31.1
30.0

13
4
13
27
41
52
50
44

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

41.4
95.5
73.3
50.5
27.7
16.9
15.3
17.0

16.6
3.3
17.2
19.7
21.4
17.8
18.5
17.5

23.7
0.9
7.5
19.1
29.4
34.8
34.9
35.8

18.4
0.3
2.0
10.7
21.5
30.5
31.3
29.7

1,216
41
328
803
1,424
1,831
1,884
1,878

14
4
14
27
44
56
53
46

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

43.0
96.9
77.4
55.5
31.3
19.1
16.4
17.6

16.6
2.3
14.7
19.6
21.7
19.1
19.2
18.2

24.0
0.7
6.1
16.9
29.1
35.5
36.6
36.6

16.4
0.1
1.8
8.1
18.0
26.3
27.8
27.6

10,949
1,634
1,739
1,507
1,485
1,374
1,447
1,763

1,408
90
645
1,163
1,846
2,199
2,072
2,064

32
12
42
73
109
133
123
111

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

38.6
92.4
57.6
38.5
25.1
19.5
15.4
15.5

19.9
6.5
24.1
29.7
21.3
15.4
20.8
21.3

20.2
0.8
14.9
17.1
24.5
25.2
30.0
30.6

21.3
0.3
3.4
14.7
29.1
40.0
33.9
32.6

4,549
464
591
689
728
670
708
701

1,091
53
176
477
1,040
1,566
1,935
1,901

40
16
29
53
95
141
165
163

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

46.1
98.4
89.9
65.9
42.1
20.4
13.3
16.8

17.6
Z
5.2
23.5
23.7
25.3
19.5
18.2

24.9
0.9
3.5
8.1
24.9
40.2
43.9
41.4

11.5
0.7
1.5
2.5
9.3
14.1
23.4
23.6

See notes at end of table.

U.S. Census Bureau

3

Table 1.

Children Ever Born Per 1,000 Women 15 to 50 Years Old by Age, Race, and Hispanic
Origin: June 2012—Con.
(Numbers in thousands)
Percent distribution of women
by number of children ever born2

Number of
women

Children
ever born
per 1,000
women

Margin of
Error1

Total

14,068
2,205
2,158
2,040
2,045
1,936
1,790
1,894

1,546
128
589
1,384
1,947
2,404
2,389
2,356

30
13
35
72
98
121
125
120

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

Characteristic

None

One
child

Two
children

Three
or more
children

35.3
90.4
60.2
34.1
16.2
9.4
10.9
14.3

17.2
7.5
25.0
22.1
21.4
13.8
15.5
15.3

22.2
1.3
12.0
25.0
30.0
32.2
28.7
30.7

25.2
0.8
2.8
18.9
32.4
44.7
44.9
39.7

RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN—Con.
Hispanic (any race)
15 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  15 to 19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20 to 24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  25 to 29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30 to 34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  35 to 39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  40 to 44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  45 to 50 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Z Represents or rounds to zero.
1
This number, when added to or subtracted from the estimate, represents the 90 percent confidence interval around the estimate.
2
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of women in the given age and race/ethnicity category. The numerator is the number of
women in that age and race/ethnicity category who have the given number of children. These percentages describe the fertility patterns of a given group of women.
Across the line, the percentages will sum to 100 percent.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

4

U.S. Census Bureau

ABOUT THE DATA
The data in this report are from the 2012 ACS and the Fertility Supplement to the June 2012 CPS. The population represented by the ACS (the population universe) is the household and group quarters population living
in the United States or Puerto Rico. The population represented by the CPS is the civilian noninstitutionalized
population living in the United States. This report focuses on the female population aged 15 to 50 as represented by these two surveys.
The ACS fertility data are from a single survey question asked of women 15 to 50 years old: “Has (this person)
given birth to any children in the past 12 months?” From this nationally representative sample, we are able
to approximate birth rates by a number of key demographic characteristics. The large sample size of the ACS
(3 million households) also makes it possible to analyze fertility characteristics on a state-by-state basis. For
more details about the ACS, including its sample size and questions, see .
The CPS data are from a four-question fertility series, asked in June of women 15 to 50 years old. These
questions ask about the total number of children a woman has given birth to, the year of their first birth, and
whether the respondent was married or cohabiting at the time of that first birth. Notably, in 2012, the sample
of women who received the questions was expanded from all women aged 15 to 44 to all women aged 15 to
50, in order to match the age range of the ACS. The questions about the respondent’s relationship status at
first birth were also new to the survey in 2012. For more details about the CPS, including its sample size and
questions, see .
Please note that although this report includes fertility rates, these estimates do not duplicate rates from
administrative birth records due to differences in sampling and data collection methods. However, while survey data do not precisely replicate administrative birth rates, they do provide characteristics of mothers and
their children that are not available in birth records. For more detail on the differences between the survey
data and administrative birth records, please see the Source and Accuracy statement, as well as the Comparison to Other Data Sources, both of which are located at the end of this report.
The 2012 data are also affected by a change in the weights applied to respondents. Both the CPS and the ACS
datasets were reweighted in 2012 to reflect the population changes seen in the 2010 Census. Of particular
relevance for this report, the reweighting increased the estimate of the size of the Hispanic population in
the United States. Given that Hispanic women have more children (see Tables 1 and 2) and are less likely to
be childless (see Table 2), the changes in estimates for total childbearing and for childlessness from 2010 to
2012 in the CPS, and from 2011 to 2012 in the ACS, are larger than the changes seen over previous years, in
part due to the change in weights. Realistically, any change in childbearing has occurred more gradually, but
the weighting adjustment makes it appear as though all the change happened in a very short time.

Completed Fertility
Completed fertility refers to the
number of children that a woman
has given birth to when she
reaches the end of her childbearing years. This information is used
to examine trends in family size
and patterns of childbearing. Many
of the women in the CPS sample
are still in their childbearing years
and may have more children in the
future. However, women over 40
are unlikely to have more children, and so their data are used to
U.S. Census Bureau

measure completed fertility.10 Table
2 shows key fertility indicators for
the 23.7 million women aged 40 to
50. On average, women aged 40
to 50 have had about two children
each, and 16.1 percent are childless. Of those who are mothers, 8.2
percent have never been married.
10
According to the 2012 ACS data, only
7.1 percent of births in the past year were
to women over 40 (see Table 3; this number
is obtained by adding the percentage of all
births for women 40 to 44 years old and the
percentage of all births for women 45 to 50
years old). Given this, we presume that the
data about these women in the CPS represent
completed fertility.

Looking at completed fertility over
time for women aged 40 to 44
shows how women’s childbearing
has changed (see Figure 1).11 For
example, the average total number
of children born fell from about
three children per woman (3,091
children per 1,000 women) in 1976
to about two children per woman
(2,045 children per 1,000 women,
11
Prior to 2012, the CPS only collected
fertility information for women up to age 44,
so historical trends are examined using the
population of women aged 40 to 44 in each
survey.

5

roughly replacement-level fertility)
in 1990.12, 13 However, completed
fertility in 2012 is higher than has
been recorded in any CPS Fertility
Supplement since 1995.14
These statistics vary by demographic characteristics. For
The number of children born per 1,000
women is used in order to compare fertility
patterns between populations of different
sizes.
13
The CPS surveys from 1976 to 1980 are
not significantly different from each other.
14
The estimates from the CPS surveys in
1995 and 2012 are not significantly different
from each other. 2010, 2008, 2000, and 1998
are not significantly different from any year
except 2012. 2006 is significantly different
from 2012, 2002, and 1995, but not significantly different from all other years. The estimate from 2004 is not significantly different
from any years except 2012 and 1995.
12

example, Hispanic women aged
40 to 50 have had an average of
2.4 children, more than any other
race or origin group shown, and
only 12.7 percent are childless (see
Table 2). Foreign-born women aged
40 to 50 have also given birth to
more children (2.2 births, on average) than have native-born women
(1.9 births, on average). This is particularly true for noncitizens (2.3
births, on average). Among women
aged 40 to 50, women with lower
education have had more children
than have women with higher
education, and the percentage of
women with a graduate degree
who are childless is twice that of

women with less than a high school
degree.15 Table 2 also shows that
women in the labor force at the
time of the survey have had fewer
children overall than women not
in the labor force: 1.9 children and
2.3 children, respectively.
Childlessness Over Time
As seen in Figure 2, we observe a
drop in childlessness (measured as
never having given birth to a child)
from 2010 to 2012 for women

15
The number of children born to women
with a bachelor’s degree is not significantly
different from the number born to women
with a graduate degree.

Table 2.

Completed Fertility for Women 40 to 50 Years Old by Selected Characteristics: June 2012
(Numbers in thousands)

Total

Children ever
born per
1,000 women

Percentage of
mothers who
are never married1

Percent
childless2

    Total women 40 to 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23,662

1,989

8.2

16.1

RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
White alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
White alone, non-Hispanic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Black alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Asian alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All other races, race combinations . . . . . . . . .
Hispanic (any race). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18,375
15,105
3,210
1,409
669
3,684

1,974
1,880
2,068
1,918
2,172
2,372

5.0
3.6
27.6
3.3
12.1
11.1

16.3
17.1
15.5
15.0
16.1
12.7

NATIVITY AND CITIZENSHIP
Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Foreign born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Naturalized citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not a citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19,196
4,466
2,217
2,248

1,930
2,241
2,134
2,347

8.3
7.7
4.9
10.6

17.2
11.4
10.8
12.0

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Not a high school graduate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
High school graduate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some college, no degree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Associate’s degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bachelor’s degree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Graduate or professional degree. . . . . . . . . . .

2,257
6,446
4,005
2,836
5,357
2,762

2,621
2,074
1,962
1,934
1,805
1,725

17.4
10.1
8.8
7.0
3.6
4.0

11.6
13.0
15.1
14.4
19.9
22.7

LABOR FORCE STATUS
In labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17,913
16,787
1,126
5,749

1,903
1,899
1,951
2,258

7.9
7.3
16.7
9.2

17.1
17.1
16.3
13.0

Characteristic

1
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of women who are mothers in the given race/ethnicity, nativity, educational attainment, or
labor force category. The numerator is then number of mothers in that category who have never been married. These percentages show the percentage of mothers
in each category who have never been married.
2
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of women in the given race/ethnicity, nativity, educational attainment, or labor force category. The numerator is then number of women in that category who have never given birth. These percentages show the percentage of women in each category
who have never given birth.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

6

U.S. Census Bureau

35 to 44 years old.16 The drop for
women 35 to 39 years old is 2.5
percentage points and for women
40 to 44 years old it is 3.7 percentage points.17 Women aged 40 to 44
in 2012 had rates of childlessness
that were not significantly different from those observed in 1992.
These data suggest that the population of women aged 40 to 44
in 2012 were more likely to have
had at least one child than were
similar populations between 1994
and 2010. Furthermore, childlessness among women aged 35 to 39,
16
A drop in childlessness means that
more women have ever given birth to a
child. However, as seen in the trends in
completed fertility, the number of children
each woman has is lower now than it was in
the 1970s. Therefore, a drop in childlessness
reflects an increase in the number of biological mothers, not necessarily an increase in
the number of children.
17
There is no significant difference in
the drop in childlessness from 2010 to 2012
between women aged 35 to 39 and women
aged 40 to 44.

which largely plateaued between
1994 and 2010, returned to 1992
levels in 2012.18

been relatively stable for almost 2
decades.

The percentage of women 30 to 34
years old in 2012 who were childless is not statistically different
from the percent childless for this
age group in any other CPS fertility
supplement since 1994, with the
exception of 2006 (see Figure 2).19
These data suggest that although
older women are less likely to be
childless in 2012 than they were in
recent years, childlessness among
women in their early 30s has
18
Childlessness for women aged 35
to 39 in 2006 is not significantly different
from the percent childless for the same age
group in 2012; however, the 2012 estimate
is significantly lower than all other estimates
between 1994 and 2010, while the 2006
estimate is not significantly different from
those estimates.
19
Childlessness for women aged 30 to 34
in 2012 is 2 percentage points higher than it
was for the same group in 2006, a significant
difference.

Some of the apparent drop in
childlessness is due to the move
to 2010-based weights for the
2012 CPS estimates. The CPS data
are drawn from a sample of the
population, and the data are then
weighted to be representative at
a national level. Following each
decennial census, the weights for
the CPS data are revised to more
accurately reflect the current
population of the United States.
This means that the CPS Fertility
Supplement weights between 2002
and 2010 were based on the 2000
Census counts (adjusted throughout the decade), while the 2012
CPS Fertility Supplement weights
were based on the 2010 Census
counts. The 2010 Decennial Census
revealed a larger Hispanic population in the United States than was

Figure 2.

Childlessness for Women Aged 30 to 44: 1976–2012
30

30

Percent
30 to 34 years

24

25
35 to 39 years

18
40 to 44 years

20

12

15

6

0
1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

1996

1900

2004

2008

2012

10

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1976–2012.

5

U.S. Census Bureau

7

1

estimated for 2010 using the 2000based weights. As Hispanic women
are more likely to be mothers than
are non-Hispanic women (see Tables
1 and 2), the new 2010-based
weights are likely responsible for
at least some of the decline in the
percentage of childless women.
However, when White, non-Hispanic
women (who make up the majority
of women aged 15 to 50) are considered by themselves, we still see
a significant decline in childlessness
between 2010 and 2012 for women
aged 35 to 44.20 This suggests that
the drop in childlessness between
2010 and 2012 is not due solely to
the switch to 2010-based weights.21

BIRTHS IN THE PAST YEAR
We use the ACS question about
births in the past 12 months to
examine characteristics of women
who have had a birth in the prior
year, as well as national- and statelevel patterns for the same.
Table 3 shows that, of the more
than 76 million women22 in the
United States who were aged 15 to
50 in 2012, 4.1 million (5.4 percent) reported experiencing a birth
in the previous 12 months. Proportionally, the fewest births were to
women aged 45 to 50 (2.3 percent).
Births per 1,000 women in a given
year represent a crude birth rate.23
We observe the highest birth rates
This is a special calculation not shown
in the figure.
21
We plan to investigate this further by
applying 2010-based weights to the 2010 CPS
Fertility Supplement data, which is currently
weighted using 2000-based weights. We will
compare the difference in estimates depending on the weights used, which will allow us
to quantify the magnitude of the observed
change in childlessness that is simply due to
the revised weights.
22
This number is slightly higher than
the population reported based on CPS data
because it includes the group quarters population, as well as differences in weighting.
For more information, see “Accuracy of the
Estimates.”
23
As stated in the section “Comparison
to Other Data Sources,” these data will not
match NCHS’s birth rates due to differences in
sampling and data collection.
20

8

for women in their late 20s and
early 30s—103.3 and 103.2 births
per 1,000 women, respectively (see
Table 3).24 The next highest birth
rate is for women in their early 20s,
at 79.1 births per 1,000 women.
The lowest birth rates are observed
for adolescent women and for
women 40 and older.
More than 60 percent of women
who reported a birth in the prior
year were married at the time of
the survey,25 while about 30 percent of the women with a birth in
the previous 12 months reported
that they had never been married
(see Table 3). However, relative to
their respective populations, married women were significantly more
likely to report a birth in the prior
year than were women who had
never been married.
Fertility levels also differed for
women of different racial backgrounds (see Table 3). The lowest fertility rate in 2012 was for
non-Hispanic White women (49
births per 1,000 women). The rate
for Native Hawaiian or other Pacific
Islanders was 79 births per 1,000
women. Black and Asian women
both had a birth rate of 57 births
per 1,000 women. American Indian
or Alaska Native women had a
birth rate of 66 births per 1,000
women.26
Nativity, Citizenship Status,
and Hispanic Origin
Population growth is accomplished
through immigration and fertility. In
this section, fertility indicators are
presented in terms of nativity, citizenship status, and Hispanic origin.
Birth rates for women aged 25 to 29
and women aged 30 to 34 are not significantly different.
25
We do not know if the marriage preceded the birth, however, so we cannot say
whether the births were to married women.
26
The fertility rate for American Indian
or Alaska Native women is not significantly
different from the rate for Native Hawaiian or
other Pacific Islanders.
24

Based on ACS data in 2012, 21
percent of women 15 to 50 years
old living in the United States
who experienced a birth in the
previous 12 months were born
in another country (see Table
3). Approximately two-thirds of
foreign-born women with a birth
in the past year were not citizens
of the United States (14.5 percent
of all women with a birth in the
12 months prior to the survey).
Overall, foreign-born women had
birth rates of 68 births per 1,000
women, 17 births per 1,000 higher
than that of native-born women
(51 births per 1,000 women).
Hispanics are one of the fastest growing groups in the United
States.27, 28 According to the 2012
ACS data, Hispanic women aged
15 to 50 had 66 births per 1,000
women (see Table 3). Notably,
more than half (52 percent) of
the births to women of Hispanic
descent were to women who were
native-born citizens, while another
9 percent of the births to Hispanic
women were to women who were
naturalized citizens.29
Educational Attainment
Existing research suggests that
women’s fertility decisions and
educational attainment are interrelated. Research suggests that,
for some women, early entry into
motherhood may force them to
leave school or prevent them from
obtaining further education.30 In
contrast, other research has shown
that some women may delay
childbearing in order to complete

27
Census Bureau Press Release, “Asians
Fastest-Growing Race or Ethnic Group in
2012, Census Bureau Reports,” released
June 13, 2013.
28
S.R. Ennis, M. Rios-Vargas, and
N.C. Albert, “The Hispanic Population: 2010,”
2010 Census Briefs, C2010BR-04, U.S. Census
Bureau, Washington, DC, 2011.
29
This is a special calculation not shown
in the table.
30
Marni, 1984.

U.S. Census Bureau

Table 3.

Women Who Had a Birth in the Past 12 Months Per 1,000 Women 15 to 50 Years Old by
Selected Characteristics: 2012—Con.
(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see
www.census.gov/acs/www/)
Women who had a birth in the past 12 months
Number of women
Characteristic
Estimate

Margin of
error1
(±)

Total

Births per
1,000 women

Percent distribution2

Estimate

Margin of
error1
(±)

Estimate

Margin of
error1
(±)

Estimate

Margin of
error1
(±)

   Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

76,187,270

33,162 4,125,353

34,597

100.0

X

54.1

0.5

AGE
15 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25 to 29 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35 to 39 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40 to 44 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45 to 50 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10,504,417
10,964,399
10,487,164
10,401,742
9,813,118
10,616,865
13,399,565

25,569
224,867
19,784
867,363
13,555 1,083,239
11,091 1,073,091
35,792
584,180
35,444
199,729
26,447
92,884

7,746
17,615
17,055
18,163
12,139
7,036
4,924

5.5
21.0
26.3
26.0
14.2
4.8
2.3

0.2
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

21.4
79.1
103.3
103.2
59.5
18.8
6.9

0.7
1.6
1.6
1.7
1.2
0.7
0.4

MARITAL STATUS
Ever married . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Currently married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not currently married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Widowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Divorced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Separated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Never married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41,771,205
32,044,246
9,726,959
596,637
6,982,428
2,147,894
34,416,065

71,671 2,835,170
90,893 2,547,653
51,330
287,517
12,082
11,476
40,613
182,317
25,159
93,724
73,944 1,290,183

27,346
25,875
9,565
1,769
7,944
4,942
19,645

68.7
61.8
7.0
0.3
4.4
2.3
31.3

0.4
0.4
0.2
0.0
0.2
0.1
0.4

67.9
79.5
29.6
19.2
26.1
43.6
37.5

0.6
0.7
1.0
2.9
1.1
2.3
0.6

48,809,085
32,529,124

88,289 3,153,869
99,326 2,268,106

28,955
24,972

76.5
55.0

0.4
0.4

64.6
69.7

0.6
0.7

6,845,270

39,137

474,170

10,613

11.5

0.3

69.3

1.6

9,434,691
27,378,185
25,463,623
1,914,562

39,594
93,080
94,898
20,335

411,593
971,484
944,390
27,094

10,467
20,564
20,662
2,487

10.0
23.5
22.9
0.7

0.2
0.4
0.4
0.1

43.6
35.5
37.1
14.2

1.1
0.7
0.8
1.2

63,536,562
12,650,708
4,946,264
7,704,444

56,445 3,266,229
46,698
859,124
33,893
261,869
48,516
597,255

30,573
15,633
8,848
13,272

79.2
20.8
6.3
14.5

0.3
0.3
0.2
0.3

51.4
67.9
52.9
77.5

0.5
1.2
1.8
1.6

53,990,506
44,790,429
10,704,263

47,910 2,812,286
19,435 2,206,855
24,058
612,819

26,094
22,673
14,077

68.2
53.5
14.9

0.4
0.4
0.3

52.1
49.3
57.3

0.5
0.5
1.3

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
Living in own household . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Householder or spouse of householder. . .
Householder or unmarried partner of
 householder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Householder with no spouse or partner
 present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not living in own household. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Living in a household unit . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Living in group quarters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NATIVITY AND CITIZENSHIP
Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Foreign born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Naturalized citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not a citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
White alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
White alone, non-Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . .
Black alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
American Indian or Alaska Native
 alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Asian alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
  Islander alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some other race alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Two or more races. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hispanic (any race). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Not a high school graduate. . . . . . . . . . . . .
High school degree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some college or associate’s degree . . . . . .
Bachelor’s degree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Graduate or professional degree. . . . . . . . .

662,889
4,544,112

9,581
15,964

43,599
259,018

2,451
8,987

1.1
6.3

0.1
0.2

65.8
57.0

3.6
2.0

153,665
4,037,343
2,094,492
14,102,302

5,327
40,302
27,111
13,446

12,107
272,804
112,720
931,798

2,070
8,651
5,179
15,379

0.3
6.6
2.7
22.6

0.0
0.2
0.1
0.3

78.8
67.6
53.8
66.1

13.1
2.2
2.4
1.1

13,559,177
16,491,867
25,635,902
13,863,148
6,637,176

50,560
634,956
62,775
951,327
76,836 1,322,329
57,137
778,838
42,371
437,903

15,781
19,313
18,531
14,858
11,030

15.4
23.1
32.1
18.9
10.6

0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.3

46.8
57.7
51.6
56.2
66.0

1.1
1.1
0.7
1.1
1.6

See notes at end of table.

U.S. Census Bureau

9

Table 3.

Women Who Had a Birth in the Past 12 Months Per 1,000 Women 15 to 50 Years Old by
Selected Characteristics: 2012—Con.
(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see
www.census.gov/acs/www/)
Women who had a birth in the past 12 months
Number of women
Characteristic

POVERTY STATUS4
Below 100 percent of poverty in the past
12 months. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Below 50 percent of poverty in the past
  12 months. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100 percent to 199 percent of poverty in
the past 12 months . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
200 percent or more above poverty in the
past 12 months. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Receiving public assistance . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not receiving public assistance. . . . . . . . . .

Percent distribution2

Births per
1,000 women

Estimate

Margin of
error1

Estimate

Margin of
error1

Estimate

Margin of
error1

53,117,217
47,641,568
5,475,649
21,048,842

62,718 2,554,489
62,373 2,193,400
36,479
361,089
63,105 1,560,459

27,138
24,007
9,754
19,685

62.1
53.3
8.8
37.9

0.4
0.4
0.2
0.4

48.1
46.0
65.9
74.1

0.5
0.5
1.7
0.9

14,048,306

73,226 1,147,296

18,656

27.9

0.4

81.7

1.3

7,042,190

52,892

623,076

12,342

15.1

0.3

88.5

1.7

14,250,924

67,769

895,366

13,902

21.8

0.3

62.8

0.9

46,204,874

95,274 2,070,233

24,818

50.3

0.4

44.8

0.5

1,996,163
74,191,107

25,042
263,254
40,237 3,862,099

8,896
34,143

6.4
93.6

0.2
0.2

131.9
52.1

4.2
0.5

Estimate
LABOR FORCE STATUS3
In labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Employed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unemployed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Margin of
error1

Total

X Not applicable.
1
This number, when added to or subtracted from the estimate, represents the 90 percent confidence interval around the estimate.
2
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of women who had a birth in the past year. The numerator is the number of women in that
specific age, marital status, living arrangement, nativity, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, labor force, poverty, or public assistance category who had a birth in
the past year. These percentages describe the composition of the population of women who had births in the past year.
3
Labor force data are only shown for the population 16 years old and over for which labor force status is determined. Excluded are the 2,021,211 women 15
years of age.
4
Poverty is calculated at a family level for those living in families, and at an individual level for those not living in families. Data are only shown for women for
whom poverty status can be determined, and therefore excludes those in institutional group quarters (such as prisons or nursing homes), college dormitories,
military barracks, and those without conventional housing (and who are not in shelters). See
for more details.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.

10

U.S. Census Bureau

more education.31, 32 Table 3 shows
that about 32 percent of births
in the prior year were to women
with some college or an associate’s
degree, more than any other group.
Fifteen percent of births in the prior
year were to women who did not
have a high school degree.

births to women in this age group
were to women aged 18 or 19, who
may have had a chance to finish
high school prior to the birth.34

Figure 3 shows births by current
age and education in more detail.
Adolescent birth rates were highest among those with a high school
diploma or GED.33 Some of this may
be due to the fact that 71 percent of

Among nonadolescent women,
birth rates for women with less
than a high school education peak
in the early 20s and then fall across
older ages (see Figure 3). In contrast, women with a bachelor’s
degree have the highest birth rate
in their early 30s, reflecting the
later entrance into motherhood
among highly educated women.35

31
Z. Wu and L. Macneill, “Education, Work,
and Childbearing After Age 30,” Journal of
Comparative Family Studies, 2002, 33(2):
191–213.
32
C. Amuedo-Dorantes and J. Kimmel,
“The Motherhood Wage Gap for Women in the
United States: The Importance of College and
Fertility Delay,” Review of Economics of the
Household, 2005, 3(1): 17–48.
33
Birth rates are not significantly different
between 15 to 19 year olds with less than a
high school degree, some college, or a bachelor’s degree or more.

34
This is a special calculation not shown
in the table.
35
For a review of the literature, see:
M. Mills, R.R. Rindfuss, P. McDonald, et al.,
“Why do people postpone parenthood?
Reasons and social policy incentives,” Human
Reproduction Update, 2011, 17(6): 848–860.

Economic Portrait of Women
With Recent Births
Looking at the economic circumstances of women with recent
births is important because
research suggests that new mothers’ economic well-being and labor
force attachment have long-term
implications. For example, some
have argued that time out of the
labor force following childbirth
puts mothers at a lifelong economic
disadvantage when compared to
nonmothers.36 From a different
perspective, others have argued
that the lack of universal maternity
leave has meant that many women
in the United States return to work
soon after a birth, to the detriment
of themselves and their newborns.37
Crittenden, 2001.
J.C. Gornick and M.K. Meyers, Families
That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, NY, 2005.
36
37

Figure 3.

Births in the Past 12 Months Per 1,000 Women 15 to 50 Years Old by
Educational Attainment and Age: 2012
(For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions,
see www.census.gov/acs/www/)
200

Less than
high school
High school
graduate
Some college or
associate’s degree

Births per 1,000 women

175
150

Bachelor’s degree
or more

125
100
75
50
25
0
15–19

20–24

25–29

30–34

35–39

40–44

45–50

Age at time of interview
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.

U.S. Census Bureau

11

AK

0

Figure 4.

Percentage of Women (Aged 15 to 50) Who Had a Birth
in the Past 12 Months Who Were in Poverty: 2012

500 Miles

WA
ME

MT

ND
VT

MN

OR

ID

NH
WI

SD

MI

WY

CT

MD

IN

IL

!
! !
!

WV

CO

AZ

NJ

OH

UT

!
!

DE

!
!

!
!
!

!
!

!

!

!

!
!

KS

VA

MO

!
!
!

!
!

DC

NC

AR

TX

!
!

!

TN
SC
AL

MS

!
!

!

KY

OK
NM

RI

PA

IA

NE

NV
CA

MA

NY

GA

Statistical significance
as compared to the
national average
Significantly higher
No difference

LA

Significantly lower
FL

HI
0

100 Miles

Note: Data based on sample. For
information on confidentiality protection,
sampling error, nonsampling error, and
definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www/.
Data for individual states can be found in
Appendix Table A.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.

Still others have noted that the
economic circumstances into which
a child is born influence that child’s
cognitive development and future
education and employment outcomes.38, 39 The following section
details the economic circumstances
of mothers who had a birth in the
past year, including their rates of
labor force participation, poverty,
and public assistance receipt.
In 2012, more than half of
women with a birth in the previous 12 months (62 percent) were
in the labor force (see Table 3),
unchanged from 2008, the year
the Census Bureau last released

38
39

12

Redd, Karver, Murphy, et al., 2011.
Moore, Redd, Burkhauser, et al., 2009.

0

100 Miles

a report on women’s fertility.40
Fertility rates for women not in the
labor force (74 births per 1,000
women) were considerably higher
than those of employed women (46
births per 1,000).
Twenty eight percent of women
with a birth in the prior year were
living in poverty in 2012 (see Table
3), up from 25 percent in 2008. The
fertility rate for women in poverty
was 82 births per 1,000—higher
than the fertility rate of those with
incomes at 100 to 199 percent of
poverty (63 births per 1,000) and
almost twice as high as those with
incomes at or above 200 percent
of poverty (45 births per 1,000). In
40
J.L. Dye, “Fertility of American Women:
2008,” Current Population Reports, P20-563,
U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, 2010.

U.S. average is 28.1

2012, about 6 percent of women
with a birth in the prior year
were receiving public assistance,
unchanged from 2008.
Figure 4 shows the percentage of
women with a birth in the prior
year who were in poverty by state.
Generally speaking, states with
higher poverty levels had higher
percentages of births to poor
women, while states with lower
poverty had rates of births to
poor women that were below the
national average.41 Mississippi and
41
For additional information on poverty
in U.S. states, see the following: A. Bishaw,
“Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2006–
2010,” American Community Survey
Briefs, ACSBR/10-17, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2011, and A. Bishaw, “Poverty: 2000–2012,” American Community Survey Briefs, ACSBR/12-01, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2013.

U.S. Census Bureau

AK

Figure 5.

0

Percentage of Women (Aged 15 to 50) Who Had a Birth
in the Past 12 Months Who Live in Someone Else’s Home: 2012

500 Miles

WA
ME

MT

ND
VT

MN

OR

ID

NH
WI

SD

MI

WY

CT

MD

IN

IL

!
! !
!

WV

CO

AZ

NJ

OH

UT

!
!

DE

!
!

!
!
!

!
!

!

!

!

!
!

KS

VA

MO

!
!
!

!
!

DC

NC

AR

TX

!
!

!

TN
SC
AL

MS

!
!

!

KY

OK
NM

RI

PA

IA

NE

NV
CA

MA

NY

GA

Statistical significance
as compared to the
national average
Significantly higher
No difference

LA

Significantly lower
FL

HI
0

100 Miles

Note: Data based on sample. For
information on confidentiality protection,
sampling error, nonsampling error, and
definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www/.
Data for individual states can be found in
Appendix Table A.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.

Montana were among the states
with the highest percentages of
births to women in poverty, both
around 40 percent. Connecticut
and Utah were among the states
with the lowest rates; 18 percent
of women with a birth in the prior
year in both of these states were in
poverty (see Appendix Table A for
the numbers for each state).
Residential Portrait of Women
With Recent Births
The characteristics of families and
households have become more
diverse in recent years. For example, many have noted an increase in
the number of Americans living in
combined households since 2007,
and within that, others have noted
an increase in multigenerational

U.S. Census Bureau

0

U.S. average is 23.5

100 Miles

households.42, 43 Additionally, recent
research suggests that nonmarital
births are increasingly occurring
to women in cohabiting relationships.44 The following section
details the living arrangements of
women who gave birth in the year
prior to the survey.
42
Combined households are defined as
households that include at least one additional adult (over 18 and not in school) who
is neither the householder nor the spouse or
cohabiting partner of the householder; see
L. Mykyta and S. Macartney, “The Effects of
Recession on Household Composition: Doubling Up and Economic Well-Being,” SEHSD
Working Paper #2011-4, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2011.
43
D.A. Lofquist, “Multigenerational Households: 2009–2011,” American Community
Survey Brief, ACSBR/11-03, U.S. Census
Bureau, Washington, DC, 2012.
44
A. Chandra, G.M. Martinez, W.D. Mosher,
et al., “Fertility, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health of U.S. Women: Data From
the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth,”
National Center for Health Statistics, Vital
Health Statistics, 2005, 23(25).

In 2012, more than three-quarters
of women with a birth in the previous 12 months reported that they
were living in their own home;
55 percent were either a married
householder or the spouse of the
householder (see Table 3).45 Twelve
percent were in a cohabiting relationship, and 10 percent did not
have a spouse or partner present.
Notably, more than one in five
women with a birth in the previous
12 months reported that they were
living in someone else’s home at
the time of the survey (see Table
3). Most (70 percent) of the women
with recent births who lived in
someone else’s home were the child
of the householder; that is, the
45
The “householder” is the person in
whose name the home is owned or rented.

13

daughter of the person who owns
or rents the home.46
Figure 5 shows the states in which
women with a recent birth were
more or less likely to live in someone else’s home. It shows a concentration of higher than average
numbers of new mothers living in
someone else’s home in states in
the South, as well as higher than
average levels of shared households
in California and New York, states
with high costs of housing.47 When
Figure 5 is compared to a map
of multigenerational households
(households in which at least three
generations live together), many of
the same states stand out, suggesting that these two trends have
significant geographic overlap.48
Births to Young Women
Vital Statistics data show that births
to adolescents are currently at historic lows, having been more than
halved since 1991.49 CPS data reflect
this decline since 2008, as demonstrated by the rise in childlessness
among women aged 15 to 19 from
93.7 percent in 2008 to 94.9 percent in 2012 (see Table 1).50
However, recent research shows
that adolescent parenthood continues to be linked to poverty, low
academic achievement, and familial
instability.51, 52 Additional evidence
suggests that many of the negative
46
This is a special calculation not shown
in the table.
47
Calculated from table S2506 ACS 2012
1-year estimates on American FactFinder.
48
For a map of the prevalence of shared
households, see Figure 3 of S. Macartney and
L. Mykyta, “Poverty and Shared Households
by State: 2011,” American Community Survey
Brief, ACSBR/11-05: U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2012.
49
Martin, et al., 2013.
50
See Table 1 of Dye, 2010.
51
S.D. Hoffman and R.A. Maynard, (eds.),
Kids Having Kids: Economic Costs and Social
Consequences of Teen Pregnancy, 2nd Edition,
Urban Institute Press, Washington, DC, 2008.
52
E. Terry-Humen, J. Manlove, and
K.A. Moore, “Playing Catch-Up: How Children
Born to Teen Mothers Fare,” National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Washington,
DC, 2005.

14

repercussions of adolescent pregnancy are also present for women
who become mothers in their early
20s.53 The reasons offered for the
persistence of poor outcomes, even
for young mothers who are not
adolescents, are varied, including
high rates of unintended pregnancy
among young women, as well as
lower educational attainment, high
rates of nonmarital births, and lower
levels of workforce attachment on
the part of young mothers. 54, 55, 56, 57

percent of the women aged 15 to
22 who had a birth in the prior
year reported living in their own
households; 16 percent were living
with a spouse, another 14 percent
were cohabiting, and 9 percent did
not have a spouse or partner in the
household. However, 60 percent of
young women with a birth in the
prior year lived in someone else’s
home, three out of four of whom
were living with their own parent
or parents.58

Neither the ACS nor the CPS can
be used to examine the long-term
effects of women giving birth when
they are young. However, in light
of concerns about early entry into
motherhood, these data can offer
more information about the population of young women (women aged
15 to 22) who have experienced a
recent birth.

Ninety percent of women aged
15 to 22 who had a birth in the
prior year were native born, while
another 2 percent were naturalized citizens (see Table 4). White
women comprise the largest group
of young women with a birth in the
past year (61 percent); 29 percent
of young women with a birth in the
past year were Hispanic (regardless of race), while 23 percent were
Black, and one percent were Asian.

Out of the roughly 17 million
women aged 15 to 22 in 2012,
about 727 thousand (4 percent)
reported a birth in the past year
(see Table 4), constituting 18
percent of all births in the previous
12 months. The vast majority of
women aged 15 to 22 who experienced a birth in the prior year were
never married (73 percent). Of the
27 percent who reported being
ever married, most were married
at the time of the survey. Forty
53
J. Manlove, E. Terry-Humen, L. Mincielli,
et al., “Outcomes Among Children of Teen
Mothers at Kindergarten Entry and Through
Adolescence: Analyses of Recent Data,” Invited
chapter in R. Maynard, and S. Hoffman, (eds.),
Kids Having Kids: Economic Costs and Social
Consequences of Teen Pregnancy, 2nd edition,
Urban Institute Press, Washington, DC, 2009.
54
L.B. Finer and S.K. Henshaw, “Disparities in Rates of Unintended Pregnancy in the
United States, 1994 and 2001,” Perspectives
on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2006,
38(2): 90–96.
55
K. Perper, K. Peterson, and J. Manlove,
“Child Trends Fact Sheet: Diploma Attainment Among Teen Mothers,” Child Trends,
Washington, DC, 2010.
56
S.J. Ventura and C.A. Bachrach, “Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States,
1940–99,” National Vital Statistics Reports,
48(16), National Center for Health Statistics,
Hyattsville, MD, 2000.
57
Miller, 2009.

Although not all women in this
age group who had a birth in the
prior year were old enough to have
completed a college degree or,
in some cases, even high school,
the majority (91 percent) were 18
years old or older. 59 Therefore,
given the age distribution, it is not
surprising that 69 percent had a
high school degree or more and
one-third reported some college
(see Table 4). Fifty-four percent of
young women with a birth in the
past year were in the labor force,60
while 37 percent were employed at
the time of the survey.
While only 10 percent of young
mothers who gave birth in the prior
year received public assistance,
58
The proportion living with parents is a
special calculation using the population of
young women who were not living in their
own household but were living in a household unit.
59
This is a special calculation not shown
in the table.
60
This estimate includes those employed
and working, employed but on maternity
leave, and those who are not employed but
are looking for work.

U.S. Census Bureau

Table 4.

Young Women (Aged 15 to 22) Who Had a Birth in the Past 12 Months by Selected
Characteristics: 2012
(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see
www.census.gov/acs/www/)
Women 15 to 22 who had a
birth in the past 12 months

Number of women

Total

Characteristic

Percent distribution2

Estimate

Margin of
error1

Estimate

Margin of
error1

Estimate

Margin of
error1

   Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,362,834

45,889

727,069

16,639

100.0

X

MARITAL STATUS
Ever married . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
888,944
  Currently married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
779,763
  Not currently married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
109,181
Never married. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,473,890

15,402
13,603
6,305
48,676

193,407
175,153
18,254
533,662

7,671
7,409
2,259
13,848

26.6
24.1
2.5
73.4

0.9
0.9
0.3
0.9

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
Living in own household . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,998,209
  Householder or spouse of householder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
716,385
  Householder or unmarried partner of householder . . . . . . . . .
646,822
  Householder with no spouse or partner present . . . . . . . . . . .
635,002
Not living in own household. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,364,625
  Living in a household unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,887,405
  Living in group quarters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,477,220

23,806
15,447
14,650
11,331
49,442
47,776
15,139

288,053
116,554
105,035
66,464
439,016
429,089
9,927

10,098
5,934
6,055
4,453
11,922
11,782
1,594

39.6
16.0
14.4
9.1
60.4
59.0
1.4

1.0
0.7
0.7
0.6
1.0
1.0
0.2

NATIVITY AND CITIZENSHIP
Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,981,513
Foreign born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,381,321
Naturalized citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
367,998
Not a citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,013,323

44,156
21,190
10,393
19,169

654,490
72,579
10,971
61,608

15,675
4,943
2,070
4,484

90.0
10.0
1.5
8.5

0.6
0.6
0.3
0.6

RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
White alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,953,843
  White alone, non-Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9,651,172
Black alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2,652,621
Asian alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
818,125
All other races, race combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1,938,245
Hispanic (any race). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3,590,221

32,534
24,350
19,055
10,554
23,191
17,088

443,859
309,352
166,317
9,614
107,279
213,004

11,987
9,736
8,161
1,449
5,626
7,739

61.0
42.5
22.9
1.3
14.8
29.3

1.0
0.9
1.0
0.2
0.7
0.8

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Not a high school graduate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
High school graduate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some college or associate’s degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bachelor’s degree or higher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7,470,791
3,295,535
6,083,986
512,522

26,446
27,406
37,552
10,790

225,579
259,302
234,808
7,380

8,434
10,182
8,588
1,490

31.0
35.7
32.3
1.0

1.0
1.1
0.9
0.2

LABOR FORCE3
In labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Employed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Unemployed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not in labor force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7,987,398
6,422,713
1,564,685
7,354,225

40,576
36,081
23,427
36,010

387,077
264,631
122,446
329,587

11,143
9,986
5,600
9,576

54.0
36.9
17.1
46.0

0.8
1.0
0.7
0.8

POVERTY STATUS4
Below 100 percent of poverty in the past 12 months. . . . . . . . . .
  Below 50 percent of poverty in the past 12 months . . . . . . . .
100 to 199 percent of poverty in the past 12 months . . . . . . . . .
200 percent or more of poverty in the past 12 months . . . . . . . .

4,169,445
2,287,596
3,438,315
8,332,610

40,705
30,059
34,530
41,762

344,351
202,532
193,677
183,432

10,574
7,595
7,020
8,090

47.7
28.1
26.8
25.4

0.9
0.8
0.8
0.9

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Receiving public assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
246,389
Not receiving public assistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,116,445

7,721
46,127

72,858
654,211

5,024
16,742

10.0
90.0

0.7
0.7

X Not applicable.
1
This number, when added to or subtracted from the estimate, represents the 90 percent confidence interval around the estimate.
2
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of young women who had a birth in the past year. The numerator is the number of young
women in that specific marital status, living arrangement, nativity, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, labor force, poverty, or public assistance category who had
a birth in the past year. These percentages describe the composition of the population of young women who had births in the past year.
3
Labor force data are only shown for the population 16 years old and over for which labor force status is determined. Excluded are the 2,021,211 women 15
years of age.
4
Poverty is calculated at a family level for those living in families, and at an individual level for those not living in families. Data are only shown for women for
whom poverty status can be determined, and therefore excludes those in institutional group quarters (such as prisons or nursing homes), college dormitories,
military barracks, and those without conventional housing (and who are not in shelters). See
for more details.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.
U.S. Census Bureau

15

they had comparatively high rates
of poverty (see Table 4). The nation’s
official poverty rate was 15 percent
in 2012,61 but 48 percent of young
women with a birth in the prior
year lived in households that were
in poverty, and 28 percent were in
extreme poverty (below 50 percent
of the Federal Poverty Line).
Figure 6 shows states that had
higher or lower proportions of
young women with a recent birth
than the nation overall. Births to
young mothers (less than 23 years
old at the time of the survey) are
generally most prevalent in the
states with the highest levels of

RELATIONSHIP STATUS AT
FIRST BIRTH OVER TIME

poverty.62 However, the prevalence
of births to young mothers is also
likely linked to the age distribution
of the populations in these states.
The low percentage of births to
young women in Florida is likely
due to the fact that Florida has a
higher than average median age,
while the higher than average percentage of births to young women
in Texas likely reflects the fact that
Texas has a lower than average
median age.63

In addition to total fertility, we
examine changes over time in
women’s relationship status at first
birth. This information comes from
newly available CPS data on marriage and cohabitation at the time of
entry into motherhood. As in years
past, the CPS Fertility Supplement
asks women how many children
they have ever had. However, in an
effort to reduce redundancy with
the ACS, the focus of the remaining
questions is now on the first birth,
rather than the most recent birth.
For women 15 to 50 years old who
report having given birth, the CPS
now asks about the year of their
first birth and whether they were
married or cohabiting at that birth.

See Bishaw, 2013 and Bishaw, 2011.
For a map of relative median age by
state, see Figure 5 of L. Howden and J. Meyer,
“Age and Sex Composition: 2010,” 2010 Census Briefs, C2010BR-03, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2011.
62

C. DeNavas-Walt, B.D. Proctor, J.C. Smith,
“Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012,” Current Population Reports, P60-245, U.S. Census Bureau,
Washington, DC, 2013.
61

AK

0

63

Figure 6.

Percentage of Young Women (Aged 15 to 22) Who Had a Birth
in the Past 12 Months : 2012

500 Miles

WA
ME

MT

ND
VT

MN

OR

ID

NH
WI

SD

MI

WY

CT

MD

IN

IL

!
! !
!

WV

CO

AZ

NJ

OH

UT

!
!

DE

!
!

!
!
!

!
!

!

!

!

!
!

KS

VA

MO

TX

!
!
!

!
!

DC

NC

TN
SC
MS

!
!

!

AR
AL

!
!

!

KY

OK
NM

RI

PA

IA

NE

NV
CA

MA

NY

GA

Statistical significance
as compared to the
national average
Significantly higher
No difference

LA

Significantly lower
FL

HI
0

16

100 Miles

Note: Data based on sample. For
information on confidentiality protection,
sampling error, nonsampling error, and
definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www/.
Data for individual states can be found in
Appendix Table A.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.

0

U.S. average is 4.2

100 Miles

U.S. Census Bureau

ed

Women’s relationship contexts
at the time of the first birth are
related to later circumstances for
both mothers and their children.
35–50 years old
Research shows that women with
a nonmarital first birth are both
less likely to ever marry and less
25–34 years old
likely to remain married if they do
marry.64 Furthermore, research15–24 years ers
old have found that women with
a nonmarital birth are more likely
to be poor, and their children are
more likely to spend time in a
single-parent family.65, 66 However,
research has demonstrated that
nonmarital births are not necessarily births to unpartnered mothers;
other data have shown that increasing numbers of unmarried mothers
live with a cohabiting partner at the
time of the birth.67, 68, 69 The new
CPS questions allow us to examine
relationship status at first birth, as
well as changes in relationship status over time for different groups
of women.
Figure 7 shows that, although the
majority of first births continue to
occur in marital relationships, there
is a clear decline in marital first
births since the early 1990s, from
70 percent for women whose first
birth was between 1990 and 1994,
to 55 percent for women whose
first birth was in 2005 or later.70
64
D.M. Upchurch, L.A. Lillard, and
C. Panis, “The Impact of Nonmarital Childbearing on Subsequent Marital Formation and
Dissolution,” In Out of Wedlock: Causes and
Consequences of Nonmarital Fertility, edited
by L.L. Wu and B. Wolfe, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, NY, 2001.
65
L.L. Wu and B. Wolfe, (eds.), Out of Wedlock: Causes and Consequences of Nonmarital
Fertility, Russell Sage Foundation, New York,
NY, 2001.
66
Upchurch, Lillard, and Panis, 2001.
67
L.L. Bumpass and H. Lu, “Trends in
Cohabitation and Implications for Children’s
Family Contexts in the United States,” Population Studies, 2000, 54(1).
68
L.L. Bumpass and R.K. Raley, “Redefining Single Parent Families: Cohabitation and
Changing Family Reality,” Demography, 1995,
32(1).
69
Chandra, Martinez, Mosher, et al., 2005.
70
The percent married at first birth
between 1995 and 1999 is not significantly
different from the percent married at first
birth in the groups either before (1990 to
1994) or after (2000 to 2004).

U.S. Census Bureau

Figure 7.

Relationship Status at First Birth by Year of First Birth
100

Percent
Married at first birth
Cohabiting at first birth
Neither married nor
cohabiting at first birth

80

60

40

20

0

Before 1990

1990–1994

1995–1999

2000–2004

2005 or later

All mothers, 15–50 years
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

Additionally, prior to the mid
1990s, more first births occurred
to women who were neither married nor cohabiting than to women
who were cohabiting. However,
since 1995, first births to cohabiting couples have consistently
surpassed those to women who
were neither married nor cohabiting. These data reinforce others’
findings about the rise in cohabitation as a family form.71
The drop in marital births over
time is especially striking among
women who became mothers at
a young age; the percentage of
women who were both younger
than 23 years old and married at
the time their first child was born

71
See, for example, G.M. Martinez,
K. Daniels, and A. Chandra, “Fertility of Men
and Women Aged 15–44 Years in the United
States: National Survey of Family Growth,
2006–2010,” National Health Statistics
Reports; Number 51, National Center for
Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD, 2012.

declines significantly in each cohort
observed (see Figure 8).72
As noted above, although adolescent pregnancy is at record lows,73
research shows that later circumstances are related to age at first
birth.74 Some researchers have
noted that the implications of early
entry into motherhood likely relate
to young women’s circumstances at
the time that they became mothers.75 Therefore, it is important
to look at the relationships that
young women have at the time of
their first births, and how those
relationship patterns have changed
over time.
We find that although at least half
of all first births to young mothers
72
This group includes women whose first
birth occurred when they were aged 12 to 22.
73
Martin, Hamilton, Osterman, et al., 2013.
74
Hoffman and Maynard, 2008; TerryHumen, Manlove, and Moore, 2005.
75
S.D. Hoffman, “Teenage Childbearing Is
Not So Bad After All Or Is It? A Review of the
New Literature,” Family Planning Perspectives,
1998, 30(5): 236–43.

17

0

occurred in marriage prior to
1994, one-quarter of first births to
young mothers since 2005 were in
the context of a marital relationship (see Figure 8). The growth in
35–50 years old
cohabitation as a context for first
birth has roughly paralleled the
decline
in marriage; of this same
25–34 years
old
group of recent young mothers
(since 2005), more mothers were
15–24 years
old
cohabiting
(38 percent) than were
married (24 percent) at the time of
their first birth.76
In comparison with all mothers
(see Figure 7), young mothers are
more likely to have had their first
birth when they were neither married nor cohabiting (see Figure 8).
Among young mothers who had
their first birth between 2005 and
June of 2012, 38 percent were neither married nor cohabiting at the
time of the first birth.77 Although
some research suggests that many
women who are not living with a
partner at the time of the birth are
still romantically involved with the
father of their child, other research
also suggests that when parents do
not live together, they are less likely
to stay together as a couple.78, 79
Table 5 presents relationship patterns for groups of women who
had their first births around the
same time (referred to as “cohorts”),
and it shows significant changes
over time. While at least half of all
women were married at their first
birth in all cohorts, 68 percent of
women who gave birth 20 or more
years prior to the survey were married at the time of their first birth,
76
The years of 1995 to 1999 and 2000
to 2004 are not significantly different from
each other.
77
The percent cohabiting was not significantly different from the percent who were
neither married nor cohabiting.
78
Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research
on Child Wellbeing, “Parents’ Relationship
Status Five Years After a Nonmarital Birth,”
Fragile Families Research Brief #39, Princeton
University, 2007.
79
Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research
on Child Wellbeing, “Diversity Among Unmarried Parents,” Fragile Families Research Brief
#10, Princeton University, 2002.

Figure 8.

Relationship Status at First Birth for Young Mothers
by Year of First Birth
100

Percent
Married at first birth
Cohabiting at first birth
Neither married nor
cohabiting at first birth

80

60

40

20

0

Before 1990

1990–1994

1995–1999

2000–2004

2005 or later

Mothers whose first birth was prior to age 23
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

but only 52 percent of women in the
most recent cohort were married.80
As first births to married mothers
have declined, births to cohabiting
mothers have increased.81 About 14
percent of mothers who gave birth
more than 20 years prior to the
survey were cohabiting, compared
with 25 percent of mothers who had
a first birth in the 5 years prior to
the survey.
There is also a great deal of variation by women’s age at first birth
(see Table 5). For example, the
majority of adolescent births 20
or more years prior to the survey
occurred to women who were married, while the majority of adolescent births fewer than 5 years prior
80
The most recent cohort of women consists of women who had their first birth in the
5 years prior to the survey.
81
Cohabitation at first birth was not
significantly different between the cohort of
women who gave birth 10 to 14 years prior
to the survey and the cohort who gave birth
15 to 19 years prior to the survey.

to the survey occurred to women
who were neither married nor
cohabiting.82 However, across all
cohorts, women who had a first
birth before age 25 were less likely
to be married than women who
were 25 or older. Additionally,
at least three-quarters of all first
births to mothers 25 or older have
consistently occurred in marriage.
We also observe changes over time
by race and Hispanic origin (see
Table 5). For example, roughly four
out of five Asian women were married at first birth in all cohorts.83
In contrast, at least three out of
four first births to non-Hispanic
White women occurred in marriage
82
The percentage of women who were
married at first birth more than 20 years prior
to the survey and the percentage of women
who were neither married nor cohabiting
at first birth fewer than 5 years before the
survey were not significantly different from
each other.
83
Marriage at first birth was not significantly different between any cohorts of
Asian mothers.

ailed

18

U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. Census Bureau

19

51.1
71.6
86.9
92.7
N
N
76.0
79.4
34.4
81.9
49.8
64.1
69.2
66.9
72.9
75.8
70.5

AGE AT FIRST BIRTH1
Younger than 20 years2. . . . . . . . . . . .
20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25 to 29 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35 to 39 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40 years or older3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE1
White alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
White alone, non-Hispanic. . . . . . . . .
Black alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Asian alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All other races, race combinations . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN1
Hispanic (any race) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Non-Hispanic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NATIVITY AND CITIZENSHIP1
Native born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Foreign born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Naturalized citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not a citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.2
16.3
13.2
18.8

18.9
12.5

11.7
9.6
21.3
8.2
28.7

19.7
13.1
6.5
1.9
N
N

1,640
13.8

19.9
10.8
11.0
10.7

17.1
18.3

12.3
10.9
44.3
10.0
21.5

29.2
15.3
6.6
5.4
N
N

2,146
18.1

67.3
73.7
80.1
68.7

60.4
70.7

73.8
78.0
40.7
88.8
46.7

39.8
65.7
85.0
85.1
87.6
N

5,581
68.7

17.7
15.3
13.1
17.1

26.5
14.9

15.9
12.5
25.2
3.8
31.0

33.2
18.9
8.3
7.5
12.4
N

1,397
17.2

15.0
11.0
6.9
14.2

13.2
14.4

10.3
9.5
34.1
7.4
22.3

27.1
15.4
6.7
7.4
0.0
N

1,151
14.2

64.5
74.0
81.5
68.9

59.1
68.6

71.1
74.5
35.7
87.5
48.6

34.1
54.7
85.0
89.8
87.8
100.0

5,677
66.5

19.1
16.6
11.5
20.0

26.3
16.5

17.8
15.5
27.6
5.7
24.0

34.4
26.9
9.9
4.2
4.3
0.0

1,584
18.6

16.4
9.5
7.0
11.1

14.6
15.0

11.2
10.0
36.7
6.8
27.5

31.5
18.4
5.0
6.1
7.9
0.0

1,273
14.9

58.9
71.8
84.5
64.8

47.3
65.3

65.6
71.8
30.5
88.7
46.1

20.0
45.6
79.4
89.3
82.6
81.5

5,262
61.5

23.6
19.1
10.3
24.0

35.3
19.2

23.2
19.3
23.4
8.0
31.6

40.9
36.1
12.5
6.5
8.3
7.5

1,939
22.7

17.6
9.1
5.3
11.2

17.4
15.4

11.1
8.9
46.2
3.3
22.3

39.2
18.3
8.2
4.2
9.2
11.0

1,357
15.9

48.8
66.1
79.2
60.7

40.8
54.4

56.4
60.7
21.0
86.3
30.2

13.9
31.2
70.4
79.7
81.1
79.9

3,691
51.6

26.9
18.2
12.2
20.8

30.6
24.2

26.1
25.0
24.9
8.9
42.6

35.3
36.9
19.2
14.2
10.4
8.5

1,822
25.5

24.3
15.6
8.7
18.6

28.6
21.4

17.5
14.3
54.1
4.9
27.2

50.9
32.0
10.4
6.2
8.5
11.6

1,636
22.9

N Not available. There are no women in sample eligible to meet this criteria.
1
The denominator for each of these percentages is the total number of women in the given childbearing cohort and age at first birth, race, ethnic origin, or nativity/citizenship category. The numerator is the number
of women in that same group who had each relationship status at first birth. Across the line within any given cohort, the percentages will sum to 100 percent, and show how women’s relationships at first birth have
changed over time.
2
Includes women aged 12 to 19 at first birth.
3
Includes women aged 40 to 50 at first birth.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

8,091
68.1

Married
at first
birth

Living Neither
with married
unmar- nor living
with a
ried
partner partner
at first
at first
birth
birth

Less than 5 years
since first birth

Living Neither
with married
unmar- nor living
with a
ried
partner partner Married
at first
at first
at first
birth
birth
birth

5 to 9 years
since first birth

Living Neither
with married
unmar- nor living
with a
ried
partner partner Married
at first
at first
at first
birth
birth
birth

10 to 14 years
since first birth

Living Neither
with married
unmar- nor living
with a
ried
partner partner Married
at first
at first
at first
birth
birth
birth

15 to 19 years
since first birth

Living Neither
with married
unmar- nor living
with a
ried
partner partner Married
at first
at first
at first
birth
birth
birth

20 or more years
since first birth

ALL WOMEN
   Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Percent1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Characteristic

(Numbers in thousands)

Relationship Status at First Birth by Selected Characteristics Over Time: June 2012

Table 5.

until the most recent two cohorts,
when the percent married at first
birth fell to 72 percent for those
whose first birth was 5 to 9 years
prior to the survey, and 61 percent for those in the most recent
cohort.84 Black women had the lowest percentages of women married
at first birth in all cohorts. Sixtyfour percent of Hispanic women
who gave birth more than 20 years
prior to the survey were married at
first birth, while 41 percent of the
Hispanic women who gave birth in
the 5 years prior to the survey were
married at first birth.85
One quarter of both Black and
non-Hispanic White women whose
first birth was in the 5 years prior
to the survey were cohabiting at
the time of the first birth (see Table
5).86 Across all but the most recent
cohort, cohabitation at first birth
was more common among Hispanic women than it was among
non-Hispanics.87 Among first births
within the 9 years prior to the survey, native-born women were more
likely than foreign-born women to
have been cohabiting at the time of
the birth.
Between 9 and 11 percent of nonHispanic White women were neither
married nor cohabiting at the time
of their first birth up until the most
recent cohort, but for those whose
84
The percent married at first birth was
not significantly different between the cohort
that gave birth 10 to 14 years prior to the
survey and the cohort that gave birth 15 to
19 years prior to the survey for non-Hispanic,
White mothers.
85
The percent married at first birth
was not significantly different between the
cohorts that gave birth 10 or more years
prior to the survey for Hispanic mothers. The
percent married at first birth was also not
significantly different between the cohort that
gave birth 5 to 10 years prior to the survey
and the cohort that gave birth less than 5
years before the survey for Hispanic mothers.
86
Cohabitation at first birth was not
significantly different between Black and
non-Hispanic White mothers in the cohort that
gave birth within 5 years of the survey.
87
Cohabitation at first birth was not
significantly different between Hispanic and
non-Hispanic mothers in the cohort that gave
birth 5 or less years prior to the survey.

20

first birth was fewer than 5 years
prior to the survey, the number
rose to 14 percent (see Table 5).88
Although at least a third of Black
women were neither married
nor cohabiting at first birth in all
cohorts, half of Black women in the
most recent cohort were neither
married nor cohabiting at first birth.
The percentage of Hispanic women
who had a first birth while neither
married nor cohabiting did not vary
significantly among earlier cohorts;
however, 29 percent of Hispanic
women who had their first birth in
the 5 years prior to the survey were
neither married nor cohabiting.
Foreign-born women consistently
had a higher percentage of their
first births in marriage than did
native-born women, as well as a
lower percentage of first births to
women who were neither married
nor cohabiting (see Table 5).
Relationship Status at
First Birth and Later Life
Circumstances
Research shows that women’s
relationship status at their first
birth is correlated with later life
circumstances. Some of this is
probably related to women’s other
circumstances at the time of their
first birth. For example, researchers
have found that nonmarital births
tend to be concentrated among
women facing disadvantages, such
as lower education and higher
poverty.89, 90 However, additional
88
There were no significant differences
between any of the cohorts of women who
were neither married nor cohabiting at first
birth in the cohorts 5 or more years prior to
the survey. However, all cohorts of women
who were neither married nor cohabiting at
first birth in the cohorts 5 or more years prior
to the survey are significantly different from
the most recent cohort of women who were
neither married nor cohabiting at first birth.
89
S.D. Hoffman and E.M. Foster, “Economic
Correlates of Nonmarital Childbearing Among
Adult Women,” Family Planning Perspectives,
1997, 29(3).
90
D.M. Upchurch, L.A. Lillard, and
C.W.A. Panis, “Nonmarital Childbearing; Influences of Education, Marriage, and Fertility,”
Demography, 2002, 39(2).

evidence suggests that nonmarital
births also contribute to continued
poverty and disadvantage later.91
The CPS data allow us to examine
this relationship in more depth.
Statistical models were run to
examine the association between
women’s relationship status at first
birth and their circumstances at the
time of the survey. These models
generate predictions of the chance
that someone with a given history
will experience a given event while
accounting for other characteristics
that are also related to women’s
circumstances (such as their age
and number of children).
Four logistic regression models
(see About Regression Analysis)
were used to predict four different outcomes in two areas that
are important for the well-being
of children and families: economic
well-being and family stability. A
large body of research demonstrates that poverty is associated
with negative outcomes for children, adults, and families, affecting
children’s academic performance,
women’s health, and family stability.92, 93, 94 However, because the CPS
fertility data do not include a direct
measure of poverty, educational
attainment and labor force attachment were used as approximations
of economic well-being. To measure the importance of first-birth
circumstances for later economic
well-being, we predicted the likelihood that a woman had a high
school diploma, as well as whether

91
For a review of recent literature on the
topic, see S. McLanahan and C. Percheski,
“Family Structure and the Reproduction of
Inequalities,” Annual Review of Sociology,
2008, 34: 257–276.
92
Moore, Redd, Burkhauser, et al., 2009.
93
M. Cohen, “Impact of poverty on
women’s health,” Canadian Family Physician,
1994, 40: 949–958.
94
A. Lewen, “The effect of economic
stability on familial stability among welfare
recipients,” Evaluation Review, 2005, 29(30):
223–240.

U.S. Census Bureau

ABOUT REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Regression analysis is a statistical technique used to estimate the relationships between a dependent variable, or outcome, and one or more
independent, or predictor, variables. For example, a person’s level of
education likely predicts their income, but other factors, such as years
of work experience, also matter. Regression models allow researchers
to identify the size of the relationship between education and income,
while also taking years of experience and other factors into account.
Logistic regression is a specific type of regression model used to
predict a dichotomous, or two-way, categorical outcome (for example,
“employed” vs. “not employed”). Because the model is predicting a
binary outcome (either true or not true), logistic regression produces
a measure of the natural logarithm of the odds of the outcome being
true, given the other variables being accounted for.

a woman was unemployed at the
time of the survey.95
Family instability is defined as
changes in the composition of a
family that are not caused by either
birth or death and, like poverty, it is
negatively associated with the wellbeing of both children and adults.
Other research has linked parents’
relationship instability to higher
levels of problem behavior, lower
levels of high school completion,
and decreased emotional wellbeing in their children.96, 97, 98, 99 For
adults, relationship instability has
been linked to economic insecurity,
95
In this context, the formal definition
of unemployment is used, meaning that
women who are unemployed are those who
do not have employment, but who are trying
to become employed. Women who do not
have jobs but are not looking to get jobs are
classified as not in the labor force and are not
included in the population of women who are
unemployed.
96
S.E. Cavenaugh and A.C. Huston, “Family Instability and Children’s Early Problem
Behavior,” Social Forces, 2006, 85: 551–581.
97
C.R. Martinez and M.S. Forgatch,
“Adjusting to Change: Linking Family Structure Transitions With Parenting and Boys’
Adjustment,” Journal of Family Psychology,
2002, 16: 107–117.
98
P. Suet-Ling and J. Dong-Beom, “The
Effects of Change in Family Structure and
Income on Dropping Out of Middle and High
School,” Journal of Family Issues, 2000, 21:
147–169.
99
L.L. Wu and E. Thomson, “Race Differences in Family Experience and Early Sexual
Initiation: Dynamic Models of Family Structure
and Family Change,” Journal of Marriage and
the Family, 2001, 63: 682–696.

U.S. Census Bureau

increased stress, and lower levels
of parental involvement.100, 101, 102
To examine the implications of first
birth circumstances for later familial
stability, we predict the likelihood
that a woman is married at the time
of the survey, as well as the likelihood that she lives in a blended or
stepfamily.
The benefit to using regression
models to predict these outcomes
is that we can account for other
factors that are also known to
affect a woman’s later circumstances. For example, research has
shown that both economic wellbeing and family instability vary
by race, ethnicity, and nativity.103
Other research has shown that a
woman’s age at first birth also matters for later outcomes, as does her
number of children ever born and
the time elapsed since that first

100
C. Osbourne, L.M. Berger, and
K. Magnuson, “Family Structure Transitions
and Changes in Maternal Resources and Wellbeing,” Demography, 2012, 4923–47.
101
Cavenaugh and Huston, 2006.
102
Martinez and Forgatch, 2002.
103
D. Lichter, Z. Qian, and M. Crowley,
“Race and poverty: Divergent fortunes of
America’s children?” Focus, 2006, 24(3): 8–16.

birth.104, 105, 106 Therefore, all models
take into account the mother’s race,
Hispanic origin, nativity, age at first
birth, years since first birth, and
number of children ever born, and
estimate the relationship between
first-birth circumstances and later
outcomes while controlling for
these other influences.
After taking these other factors
into account, women who were
unmarried at their first birth were
less likely to have a high school
degree at the time of the survey
than were mothers who were married at the time of their first birth,
and this was particularly true for
women who were neither married
nor cohabiting at first birth (see
Figure 9).107, 108 Although other
data suggest that women with a
nonmarital first birth are likely to
have lower educational attainment
to begin with, these data suggest
that, even over the course of many
years, women with a nonmarital
first birth do not catch up to their
counterparts whose first birth was
in marriage.109, 110 Perhaps related
to their lower educational attainment, we further find that women
Miller, 2009.
S.E. Kirmeyer and B.E. Hamilton, “Childbearing Differences Among Three Generations of U.S. Women,” NCHS Data Brief,
Number 68, National Center for Health
Statistics, Hyattsville, MD, 2011.
106
Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Characteristics of Families—2012,”
Bureau of Labor Statistics News Release,
2013, USDL-13-0730.
107
Net of controls, women who were
cohabiting at their first birth have 0.7 times
the odds of having a high school degree at the
time of the survey as women who were married at their first birth, and women who were
neither married nor cohabiting at their first
birth have 0.5 times the odds of having a high
school degree at the time of the survey as
women who were married at their first birth.
108
Net of controls, women who were
neither married nor cohabiting at their first
birth have 0.8 times the odds of having a
high school degree at the time of the survey
as women who were cohabiting at their first
birth.
109
R.R. Rindfuss, S.P. Morgan, and K.
Offutt, “Education and the Changing Age
Pattern of American Fertility: 1969–1989,”
Demography: 1996, 33(3).
110
Upchurch, Lillard, and Panis, 2002.
104
105

21

with a nonmarital first birth were
more likely to report being unemployed at the time of the survey
than were women with a marital
first birth.111,112

survey (see Figure 9).113 Further,
women who were neither married
nor cohabiting at first birth were
less likely than women who were
cohabiting at first birth to be married at the time of the survey.114
Other research has found nonmarital births to be associated with
family instability.115, 116 The CPS
data suggest either that women
with a nonmarital first birth were
less likely to ever marry or that
their marriages did not last, and

Moreover, after accounting for the
demographic characteristics of the
sample, women with a nonmarital
first birth were significantly less
likely than women who were married at the time of their first birth
to be married at the time of the

111
Note that this is not restricted to
women who report themselves as “in the
labor market;” however, the substantive findings do not change when we exclude mothers
who are not in the labor force.
112
Net of controls, women who were
cohabiting at their first birth have 1.6 times
the odds of being unemployed at the time of
the survey as women who were married at
their first birth, and women who were neither
married nor cohabiting at their first birth
have 1.9 times the odds of being unemployed
at the time of the survey as women who were
married at their first birth.

that this is particularly true for
women who were neither married
nor cohabiting at the time of their
first birth.
We further find that among women
who were living with a child,117
women with a nonmarital first birth
were more likely to live in a blended
family (i.e., to have a stepchild in
the home or to have a spouse or
partner who is a stepfather to at
least one of their children) than
were women who were married at

113
Net of controls, women who were
cohabiting at their first birth have 0.2 times
the odds of being married at the time of the
survey as women who were married at their
first birth, and women who were neither married nor cohabiting at their first birth have 0.1
times the odds of being married at the time
of the survey as women who were married at
their first birth.
114
Net of controls, women who were neither married nor cohabiting at their first birth
have 0.6 times the odds of being married at
the time of the survey as women who were
cohabiting at their first birth.
115
A. Cherlin, “Demographic Trends in
the United States: A Review of Research in
the 2000s,” Journal of Marriage and Family,
2010, 72: 403–19.
116
Ventura and Bachrach, 2000.

117
In this final model, the sample was
limited to women who were identified as the
mother of at least one child in the home at
the time of the survey (37,689 women).

Figure 9.

Circumstances at Interview, by Marital Status at First Birth

(Relative odds when compared to a woman who was married at her first birth, net of controls)

More likely
2

Odds ratio

Economic well-being
outcomes

Cohabiting at
first birth
Neither married nor
cohabiting at birth

Family stability
outcomes

1

0

Less likely

Has high
school degree
at time of interview

Unemployed
at time of interview

Married
at time of interview

Living in a blended
family at time of
interview1, 2

1
A step or blended family is defined as living with a stepchild, or living with a man who is not the biological father of at least one of
the mother’s children in the household.
2
This estimate is run using only the sample of women who are living with someone who is identified as the child of the respondent.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, June 2012.

22

U.S. Census Bureau

first birth (see Figure 9).118 This suggests that women with nonmarital
first births experience higher family
turbulence than women whose
first birth was in marriage. Taken
together, all of these data suggest
that women with nonmarital first
births may face continued disadvantage over their lives compared with
women with marital first births.

SOURCE OF THE DATA
Some estimates in this report
come from data obtained in the
June 2012 CPS and from the CPS in
earlier years. The Census Bureau
conducts this survey every month,
although this report uses only data
from the every-other-year June surveys for its estimates.
The population represented (the
population universe) in the Fertility
Supplement to the June 2012 CPS is
the female, civilian, noninstitutionalized population, 15 to 50 years
old, living in the United States. The
institutionalized population, which
is excluded from the population
universe, is composed primarily of
the population in correctional institutions and nursing homes.
This report also presents data from
the 2012 ACS. The population represented (the population universe)
in the ACS includes the population living in households, plus the
population living in group quarters.
According to the 2010 Census, 8
million people, or 2.6 percent of
the total population, lived in group
118
Net of controls, women who were
cohabiting at their first birth have 1.7 times
the odds of living in a blended family at the
time of the survey as women who were married at their first birth, and women who were
neither married nor cohabiting at their first
birth have 1.6 times the odds of living in a
blended family at the time of the survey as
women who were married at their first birth.
However, although both categories of women
with nonmarital first births are significantly
different from women with marital first births,
within nonmarital births, women who were
cohabiting at first birth are not significantly
different from women who were neither married nor cohabiting in terms of their odds of
living in a blended family at interview.

U.S. Census Bureau

quarters. Of this number, roughly 4
million were institutionalized—
primarily in correctional institutions
and nursing homes, while roughly
4 million were noninstitutionalized
(such as in college dormitories or
other types of group quarters).

COMPARISON WITH OTHER
DATA SOURCES
Comparative estimates on annual
births are made between the ACS
and data collected in the Vital Statistics Registration system and published by the National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS); see Appendix Table B for these estimates.
The ACS birth rate is slightly different from the NCHS birth rate for
a calendar year because the ACS
asks whether a woman had a birth
in the past 12 months, extending
back from the date of the interview.
In this way, the 2012 ACS data
captures births occurring between
January of 2011 and December of
2012. In contrast, vital statistics
data (as collected by NCHS) are
administrative records of births
that occurred during the calendar
year of January to December of
2012. Additionally, NCHS birth
data record the geographic location in which the birth took place,
while ACS collects the area where
the woman lives at the time of the
survey. Moreover, birth rates by
age will be slightly different from
age-specific birth rates published
by NCHS since the women’s age in
the ACS data is at the time of the
survey interview date, while her
age in the NCHS data is at the time
she gave birth.119
Due to these differences in data
collection, the ACS tends to underestimate the number of women 15
to 19 years old with a birth in the
119
For more information, see T. Johnson
and J.L. Dye, “Indicators of Marriage and Fertility in the United States,” from the American
Community Survey: 2000 to 2003, U.S. Census
Bureau, presentation released May 2005.

last year because about half of the
19 year olds will be 20 years old
by the time of the survey. Similarly,
the ACS tends to gain births from
women 39 years old who turn
40 before the survey date. This
produces more births to women
40 to 44 years old in the ACS than
reported by Vital Statistics. For this
reason, and the fact that women
are having births at older ages, the
ACS includes women aged 45 to 50
in the survey questionnaire.

ACCURACY OF THE
ESTIMATES
Statistics from surveys are subject
to sampling and nonsampling error.
All comparisons presented in this
report have taken sampling error
into account and are significant at
the 90 percent confidence level.
This means that the 90 percent
confidence interval for the difference between the estimates being
compared does not include zero.
Nonsampling errors in surveys
may be attributed to a variety of
sources, such as how the survey
was designed, how respondents
interpret questions, how able and
willing respondents are to provide correct answers, and how
accurately the answers are coded
and classified. The Census Bureau
employs quality control procedures
throughout the production process,
including the overall design of
surveys, the wording of questions,
review of the work of interviewers
and coders, and statistical review
of reports to minimize these errors.
The CPS weighting procedure uses
ratio estimation whereby sample
estimates are adjusted to independent estimates of the national
population by age, race, sex, and
Hispanic origin. This weighting
partially corrects for bias due to
undercoverage, but biases may still
be present when people who are
missed by the survey differ from

23

those interviewed in ways other
than age, race, sex, and Hispanic
origin. How this weighting procedure affects other variables in the
survey is not precisely known. All
of these considerations affect comparisons across different surveys or
data sources.
For further information on statistical standards and the computation
and use of standard errors for the
CPS, go to or
contact the Census Bureau Demographic Statistical Methods Division
on the Internet at .
The final ACS population estimates
are adjusted in the weighting procedure for coverage errors by controlling specific survey estimates to
independent population controls by
sex, age, race, and Hispanic origin.
The final ACS estimates of housing
units are controlled to independent
estimates of total housing. This
weighting partially corrects for
bias due to over or undercoverage,
but biases may still be present,
for example, when people missed
differ from those interviewed in
ways other than sex, age, race, and
Hispanic origin. How this weighting

24

procedure affects other variables in
the survey is not precisely known.
All of these considerations affect
comparisons across different surveys or data sources.
For further information on the ACS
sample, weighting procedures,
sampling error, nonsampling error,
and quality measures from the
ACS, see .

USER COMMENTS
The Census Bureau welcomes the
comments and advice of users of
its data and reports. If you have
any suggestions or comments,
please write to:
Chief, SEHSD Division
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, DC 20233-8800
Or send an e-mail inquiry to:
SEHSD@census.gov

MORE INFORMATION

SUGGESTED CITATION

Detailed tables showing the characteristics of women aged 15 to 50
by fertility indicators are available
on the Internet at
.

Monte, Lindsay M., and Ellis, Renee
R., Fertility of Women in the United
States: June 2012, Current Population Reports, P20-575, U.S. Census
Bureau, Washington, DC, 2014.

CONTACTS
For additional information on these
topics, contact:
Lindsay M. Monte
lindsay.m.monte@census.gov
Renee R. Ellis
renee.ellis@census.gov
Fertility and Family Statistics
Branch
(301) 763-2416

U.S. Census Bureau

Appendix Table A.

Data for Map Figures
(Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see
www.census.gov/acs/www/)
Figure 4

Area

Figure 5

Percentage of women
aged 15 to 50 with a birth
in the past 12 months
who were in poverty

Figure 6

Percentage of women
aged 15 to 50 with a birth
in the past 12 months
who were living in
someone else’s home

Percentage of young women
aged 15 to 22 who had a birth
in the past 12 months

   United States (US) . . . . . . . .

Estimate
28.1

Margin of
error1
0.4

Estimate
23.5

Margin of
error1
0.4

Estimate
4.2

Margin of
error1
0.1

Alabama (AL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alaska (AK). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Arizona (AZ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Arkansas (AR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
California (CA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Colorado (CO). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Connecticut (CT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Delaware (DE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
District of Columbia (DC). . . . . . . . . .
Florida (FL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32.4
23.0
31.3
30.8
26.6
24.1
17.8
19.5
22.0
30.9

3.6
5.6
2.8
3.7
1.1
2.9
2.8
6.6
6.9
1.9

26.2
22.0
23.2
21.5
27.9
16.6
14.9
22.8
23.4
29.3

2.9
5.6
2.1
3.4
1.0
2.4
2.8
6.2
8.6
2.4

5.9
4.8
5.0
5.5
3.4
3.7
2.3
3.8
3.6
3.6

0.7
1.7
0.7
0.9
0.2
0.6
0.6
1.5
1.3
0.4

Georgia (GA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hawaii (HI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Idaho (ID). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Illinois (IL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Indiana (IN). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Iowa (IA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kansas (KS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kentucky (KY). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Louisiana (LA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maine (ME) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30.3
21.8
28.4
24.5
32.5
27.5
24.6
32.9
33.2
33.2

2.1
4.5
5.0
1.6
2.8
3.2
3.4
3.0
3.4
6.1

25.8
31.3
14.7
22.9
21.4
13.5
19.1
23.9
30.8
14.4

1.9
5.6
3.9
1.9
2.3
2.5
2.9
2.7
3.3
5.0

4.6
4.8
5.7
3.5
5.1
4.0
5.5
5.6
5.4
4.1

0.5
1.4
1.4
0.4
0.6
0.6
1.1
0.8
0.9
1.3

Maryland (MD). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Massachusetts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Michigan (MI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Minnesota (MN). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mississippi (MS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Missouri (MO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Montana (MT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nebraska (NE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nevada (NV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
New Hampshire (NH) . . . . . . . . . . . .

20.1
19.9
32.4
21.0
42.0
34.1
41.3
22.9
32.5
21.0

2.6
2.6
2.0
2.3
5.0
2.9
5.7
4.0
4.8
6.1

25.6
15.7
22.1
11.6
35.3
22.2
22.9
13.1
24.3
20.0

2.4
2.0
1.9
1.5
4.5
2.7
6.5
2.9
4.1
5.7

3.8
1.4
3.7
2.7
6.0
5.9
3.8
4.2
4.8
2.8

0.6
0.3
0.4
0.4
0.9
0.8
1.3
0.9
1.1
1.1

New Jersey (NJ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
New Mexico (NM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
New York (NY). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
North Carolina (NC). . . . . . . . . . . . . .
North Dakota (ND). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ohio (OH) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oklahoma (OK). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oregon (OR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pennsylvania (PA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Rhode Island (RI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21.6
35.9
26.1
33.3
24.5
33.6
33.9
31.7
26.5
22.6

2.1
4.8
1.4
2.1
6.1
2.2
2.8
4.3
1.7
7.4

20.4
32.7
25.1
23.9
7.1
21.0
20.2
19.3
23.1
15.9

2.3
5.0
1.5
2.0
2.7
1.8
2.6
2.9
1.8
5.7

2.9
6.0
2.8
5.2
4.6
4.9
6.3
3.1
3.6
2.7

0.5
1.3
0.3
0.5
1.4
0.4
0.7
0.7
0.3
1.0

South Carolina (SC) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
South Dakota (SD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tennessee (TN). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Texas (TX). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Utah (UT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Vermont (VT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Virginia (VA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Washington (WA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
West Virginia (WV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wisconsin (WI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wyoming (WY). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38.7
31.5
32.6
28.7
18.0
27.5
22.4
22.7
36.9
23.1
23.4

3.3
5.4
2.8
1.5
2.7
8.7
2.1
2.4
5.5
2.3
6.1

29.1
20.6
23.1
27.6
16.9
15.1
19.9
16.9
22.1
13.2
21.2

3.9
5.9
2.8
1.4
2.6
5.5
2.1
2.1
5.3
1.8
7.4

6.1
6.0
5.0
5.9
4.1
2.5
4.0
3.7
4.5
3.0
4.8

0.8
1.6
0.6
0.3
0.8
1.1
0.5
0.6
1.3
0.5
1.9

When the margin of error is added to or subtracted from the point estimate, it produces a 90 percent confidence interval.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey.
1

U.S. Census Bureau

25

Appendix Table B.

Comparison of Fertility Indicators for Women Aged 15 to 44 Years From the
2012 American Community Survey (ACS) and Birth Record Data From Vital Statistics
2012 Vital Statistics

ACS 20121, 2

Characteristic
Number

Percent3

Rate

Number

Margin of
error4

Percent

Margin of
error4

Rate

Margin of
error4

    Total women aged 15 to 44. . .
Births last year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62,744,930
3,952,841

X
6.3

X
63.0

62,787,705
4,032,469

25,504
33,769

X
6.4

X
0.1

X
64.2

X
0.5

BIRTHS BY AGE
15 to 19 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20 to 24 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25 to 29 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30 to 34 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35 to 39 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40 to 44 years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

305,388
916,811
1,123,900
1,013,416
472,318
109,579

7.7
23.2
28.4
25.6
11.9
2.8

29.4
83.1
106.5
97.3
48.3
10.4

224,867
867,363
1,083,239
1,073,091
584,180
199,729

7,746
17,615
17,055
18,163
12,139
7,036

5.6
21.5
26.9
26.6
14.5
5.0

0.2
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.2

21.4
79.1
103.3
103.2
59.5
18.8

0.7
1.6
1.6
1.7
1.2
0.7

BIRTHS BY RACE AND HISPANIC
ORIGIN5
White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
White, non-Hispanic. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Black. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
American Indian or Alaska Native. . . .
Asian or Pacific Islander . . . . . . . . . . .
Hispanic (any race)6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2,999,820
2,134,044
634,126
46,093
272,802
907,677

75.9
54.0
16.0
1.2
6.9
23.0

63.0
58.6
65.1
47.0
62.2
74.4

2,750,047
2,155,842
597,364
42,905
262,765
915,549

25,561
22,371
13,884
2,473
9,264
15,252

68.2
53.5
14.8
1.1
6.5
22.7

0.4
0.4
0.3
0.1
0.2
0.3

62.6
59.8
66.8
77.6
66.5
75.0

0.6
0.6
1.5
4.4
2.3
1.2

BIRTHS BY MARITAL STATUS
Married . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unmarried. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2,343,222
1,609,619

59.3
40.7

86.0
45.3

2,485,071
1,547,398

25,137
21,301

61.6
38.4

0.4
0.4

104.5
39.7

0.9
0.5

X Not applicable.
1
Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see .
2
The universe for the ACS is women 15 to 50 years old when the survey was taken in each month in the calendar year 2012. To match Vital Statistics data, we
used only the sample of women aged 15 to 44. The number of women who reported having had a birth in the 12 months prior (to each interview) represents the
estimates of births to those women over the course of the interview year.
3
Birth record percentages calculated from counts.
4
When the margin of error is added to or subtracted from the point estimate, it produces a 90 percent confidence interval.
5
Race of mother. ACS data refer to White alone; White, not Hispanic alone; Black alone; American Indian or Alaska Native alone; Asian alone; and Native
Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone. In contrast, Vital Statistics data categorize women as White, Non-Hispanic White, Black, American Indian or Alaska
Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander; for details on the coding of race and ethnicity in the Vital Statistics data, see the User Guide . For comparability between estimates, the Current Population Survey data for ‘Asian alone’ and ‘Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
alone’ have been combined.
6
Origin of mother.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey; J.A. Martin, B.E. Hamilton, J.K. Osterman, et al., “Births: Final Data for 2012,” National Vital
Statistics Reports, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD, 2013, Vol. 62, No. 9.

U.S. Census Bureau

26