James A. Sweet

Postwar Fertility Trends and Differentials in the United States examines fertility trends and levels within social and economic subgroups in the United States. The major portion of the book deals with the time period 1945-1969; the last chapter extends the findings through the first half of the 1970s. The study is based on data made available by the release of the 1-in-a-100 Public Use Samples from the 1960 and 1970 United States Censuses. This book is the first comprehensive study of socioeconomic fertility trends and differentials to use these Public Use Samples. The book opens with a chapter that presents annual estimates of age-specific fertility rates by educational attainment of women and by race for the period 1945-1969. Separate chapters then examine the pattern of differentials in recent fertility in the late 1950s and the late 1960s for the U.S. population as a whole; changing fertility during the period 1955-1969; and differentials in fertility within and among members of various racial and ethnic minorities. Subsequent chapters deal with rural fertility trends and differentials; the effect of migration on fertility; and the similarity of all social and economic groups with respect to fertility trends.