USA - The New Demographics of American Motherhood - Research
By Gretchen Livingston and D’Vera Cohn, Pew
Research Center
May 6, 2010
Executive
Summary
This report examines the changing demographic
characteristics of U.S. mothers by comparing women who gave birth in 2008 with
those who gave birth in 1990. It is based on data from the National
Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau. It also
presents results of a nationwide Pew Research
Center survey that asked a range of questions about parenthood.
Among the key findings of this report:
- Age:
Mothers of newborns are older now than their counterparts were two decades
ago. In 1990, teens had a higher share of all births (13%) than did women
ages 35 and older (9%). In 2008, the reverse was true -- 10% of births
were to teens, compared with 14% to women ages 35 and older. Each race and
ethnic group had a higher share of mothers of newborns in 2008 who are
ages 35 and older, and a lower share who are teens, than in 1990.
- Marital Status:
A record four-in-ten births (41%) were to unmarried women in 2008,
including most births to women in their early 20s. In 1990, 28% of births
were to unmarried women. The unmarried-mother share of births has
increased most sharply for whites and Hispanics, although the highest
share is for black women.
- Race and Ethnicity: White women made up 53% of mothers of newborns in
2008, down from 65% in 1990. The share of births to Hispanic women has
grown dramatically, to one-in-four.
- Education:
Most mothers of newborns (54%) had at least some college education in
2006, an increase from 41% in 1990. Among mothers of newborns who were
ages 35 and older, 71% had at least some college education.
- Explaining the Trends: All the trends cited above reflect a complex mix of
demographic and behavioral factors. For example, the higher share of
college-educated mothers stems both from their rising birth rates and from
women's increasing educational attainment. The rise in births to unmarried
women reflects both their rising birth rates and the shrinking share of
adults who are married.
- Attitudes about Parenthood: When asked why they decided to have their first (or
only) child, the overwhelming majority of parents (87%) answer, "The
joy of having children." But nearly half (47%) also say, "There
wasn't a reason; it just happened."
Overview
The demography of motherhood in the United States has shifted strikingly in the past two decades. Compared
with mothers of newborns in 1990, today's mothers of newborns are older and
better educated. They are less likely to be white and less likely to be
married.
In 1990, there were more births to teenagers
than to women ages 35 and older. By 2008, that had reversed -- 14% of births
were to older women and 10% were to teens. Births to women ages 35 and older
grew 64% between 1990 and 2008, increasing in all major race and ethnic groups.
Another notable change during this period was
the rise in births to unmarried women. In 2008, a record 41% of births in the United States were to unmarried women, up from 28% in 1990. The share of
births that are non-marital is highest for black women (72%), followed by
Hispanics (53%), whites (29%) and Asians (17%), but the increase over the past
two decades has been greatest for whites -- the share rose 69%.
Just over half of births (53%) in 2008 were
to white women, and a quarter (24%) were to Hispanic women. More than half of
the mothers of newborns (54% in 2006) had at least some college education.
One-in-four (24% in 2004) was foreign born.
The shift in characteristics of motherhood
over the past two decades is linked to a complex mixture of demographic and
behavioral changes. This analysis examines and explains these trends using data
from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the U.S. Census Bureau. A
separate section (found in the complete report), based on a Pew Research
Center survey, explores the reasons people say they became parents and examines
public attitudes about key trends shaping today's birth patterns.
The recasting of American motherhood takes
place against a backdrop of relative stability in the total number of births --
4.3 million in 2008, compared with 4.2 million in 1990. The number had risen
each year from 2003 to 2007 before declining by about 66,000; the decrease
appears to be linked to the economic downturn.
The nation's birth rate (births per 1,000
women of childbearing age) has declined 20% from 1990. Rates have declined for
all major race and ethnic groups. The birth rate for married women is stable,
but it has risen for unmarried women.
Demographic Changes
Population changes are a key factor
influencing birth patterns in recent decades. There are fewer women in the
prime childbearing years now than in 1990, as the youngest members of the giant
Baby Boom generation have aged into their mid-40s. But changes in the race and
ethnic makeup of young women -- chiefly, the growth of the Hispanic population,
which has higher birth rates than other groups -- have helped keep birth numbers
relatively level.
Another influence on births is the nation's
growing number of immigrants, who tend to have higher birth rates than the
native born (although those rates have declined in recent years). The share of
births to foreign-born mothers, 15% of U.S. births in 1990, has grown at least 60% through 2004.
Births to foreign-born women in 2004 accounted for the majority of Hispanic
(61%) and Asian (83%) births.
According to Pew Research Center population projections, 82% of the nation's
population growth through 2050 will be accounted for by immigrants who arrived
in the U.S. after 2005 and their descendants, assuming current trends
continue. Of the 142 million people added to the population from 2005 to 2050,
according to the projections, 50 million will be the children or grandchildren
of new immigrants.
Attitudes about Birth Trends
Americans are marrying later in life, or not
at all, which has contributed to the growth in births outside marriage. Most
Americans say they know at least one woman who had a baby while she was not
married, and one man who fathered a child while he was not married, according
to a Pew Research
Center survey. Americans have softened slightly in their
disapproval of unmarried parenthood, but most say it is bad for society.
The survey found that Americans are neutral
or approving of two other trends that have an impact on birth patterns. One is
the growing number of women ages 40 and older who have babies, a group whose
relatively small birth rate has tripled since 1990. The other is the increasing
number of women, often those over 30, who undergo fertility treatment in order
to have a baby.
When Americans are asked what is the ideal
number of children for a family, the most popular answer, according to the
survey, is "two" -- as it has been since the 1970s. And, indeed,
among women with children at the end of their reproductive years -- ages 40-44
in 2006 -- the largest share (43%) had two. An additional 22% each had one or
three children, 8% had four and 4% had five or more.
There are race and ethnic variations in
family sizes. Nearly half of Hispanic women ages 40-44 with children (48%) have
three or more, compared with 27% of Asian women.
The Pew Research
Center survey also asked parents why they decided to have their
first child, and for the overwhelming majority, the answer is, "the joy of
having children." However, a half century after the Food and Drug
Administration approved the sale of birth control pills, nearly half of parents
say "there wasn't a reason; it just happened."
Older Mothers
The average age
for U.S. mothers who had their first baby in 2008 was 25, a year
older than the average first-time mother in 1990. Among all women who had a
baby in 2008, the average age is 27, up from 26 in 1990. The prime
child-bearing years remain 20-34 -- three-quarters of mothers of newborns are
in this age range. Birth rates peak among women in their late 20s.
Since 1990, birth rates have risen for all
women ages 30 and older. Although in some cases the number of births is small,
the rate increases have been sharpest for women in the oldest age groups -- 47%
for women ages 35-39 and 80% for women ages 40-44, for example.
This delay in age of motherhood is associated
with delay in age of marriage and with growing educational attainment. The more
education a woman has, the later she tends to marry and have children. Birth
rates also have risen for the most educated women, those with at least some
college education, while being relatively stable for women with less education.
These dual factors have worked together to increase the education levels of
mothers of newborns.
Fertility Higher Than in Other Developed Nations
Another measure of birth levels is the total
fertility rate, or number of children the average woman is predicted to have,
based on current age-specific birth rates. That rate for the United States, 2.10 in 20081, is about what it was in 1990.
The number is about or slightly below the "replacement rate" -- that
is, the level at which enough children are born to replace their parents in the
population -- and has been for most years since the baby bust of the early
1970s.
Compared with Canada,
and most nations in Europe and Asia, the U.S. has a higher total fertility rate. Rates such as 1.4 in Austria, Italy and Japan have produced concern about whether those nations will
have enough people of working age in the future to support their elderly
populations, and whether their total populations could decline in size.
Why are fertility rates somewhat higher in
the United States than in other developed nations? Some researchers contend
that fertility rates are low in some other developed countries-Italy and Japan,
for example-in part because of lack of support for mothers who also hold paid
employment. Those countries also have a lower share of births to unmarried
women. The religiosity of the U.S. population also has been suggested as a factor, because it
is associated with a desire for larger families.2