A one-page summary of information on the foreign-born population of the United States based on the March 1997 Current Population Survey is provided. A paper version of the tables is available for $31 as PPL-92 on request. The detailed tabulations are also available online at http://www.census.gov.
Recent trends in marriage, divorce and redivorce, and remarriage were gleaned from cohort data from the US Supplement to the Current Population Survey, 1990, on the frequency of women entering and exiting a verity of marital statuses. Marriage patterns are described also in terms of their interrelationship with educational attainment, fertility history, age, race and Hispanic origin, age at marital event, and duration in marital status. the effects of marriage patterns on children are also considered. Future trends are anticipated along with their impact on families. The trend has been toward a significant number of adults and children living in one-parent families. This situation is also usually one of poverty and social deprivation. The time spent by children in one-parent families is estimated at almost 50%. There are 14 detailed tables to supplement the text. The appended tables and discussion provide background information on the accuracy of estimates. The increasing trend of divorce has meant that between the 1960s and 1980 the divorce rate doubled and reached the point where 1 out of 2 marriages was expected to end in divorce. During the 1980s, the rate remained the same, and first marriage and remarriage declined. Declines may be due to delay in marriage or to more people never marrying. Between 1975 and 1990, the percent of women ever married declined for all age groups; for women 20-24 years old the decline was from 63 to 38%. Marriage patterns were different for Blacks and Whites, but both experienced declines in first marriage. Black women will marry later than White women and will include a greater proportion who will never marry. Hispanic patterns were similar those of Whites. The slight drop in the percent divorcing after a first marriage between 1985 and 1990 showed less divorce for the younger age groups and more for the older age groups. 4 of 10 marriages involve a second or higher order marriage for 1 or both partners. The percent remarrying among the older cohort declined from 74% in 1975 to 63% in 1990. Remarriage was higher for White women than for Black or Hispanic women. In 1990, redivorce was 5% of all ever married women and 29% of all women remarried. Children have had to adjust to "increasingly varied and complex living arrangements." Future prospects are for women continuing to marry at a later age, never marrying, never marrying but becoming mothers, attaining higher education, and achieving a greater labor force participation.
In the U.S. during the period between 1960-1964, 52.2% of all single 15-34 year old women who were carrying their 1st child married before delivery whereas only 26.6% did in the period between 1985-1989. During 1960-1964, 30.75% of all black women who had conceived their 1st child before marriage married before the child was delivered, but by 1985-1989, this percentage fell to 8%. The corresponding percentages for white women were 61-34%. In 1985-1989, 23% of all Hispanic women who premaritally conceived their 1st child married before the child was born. The greatest rise in fertility in the 1980s occurred among women in their 30s. For example, between 1980-1990, it climbed from 60-80. 4 births/1000 women for women 30-34 years old. It rose from 26.9-37.3 for 35-39 year old women. Further 53.1% of 18-44 year old mothers with infants were working in the period in June 1990 while only 38% were working in June 1980. The overall fertility rate for all 15-44 year old women in June 1990 stood at 67. Hispanic women had significantly higher fertility rate (93.2) than non-Hispanic women 65.2, and Asian or Pacific Islander women 58.1. Even though more women married 1 time during their life, most experience their 1st birth before or during their 1st marriage (28.5 and 64.3 respectively). In June 1990, for all women between 18-34 years old, the lifetime expected births was 2273/1000 women. Based on the results of the 1990 census, the US Census Bureau concluded that a considerable fall in the preference of unmarried couples to marry before the birth of a child just to refrain from having an out of wedlock birth contributed to the increase in premarital births in the U.S.
"This report profiles the growth of the foreign-born population in the United States during the 1980s. The socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of this changing population and the fertility differences found among the various immigrant groups are highlighted. This paper will also show the similarities and differences between the foreign-born and native-born population for various demographic and economic indicators.... The data presented here are from the 1980 census and the April 1983, June 1986, and June 1988 Current Population Surveys (CPS). Detailed tabulations are shown for five major regions contributing most of the immigrants to the United States--Asia, Latin America, Europe, Northern America, and the Soviet Union."
"This paper will examine the changes in the timing of entry into motherhood among post World War II birth cohorts of women and the childbearing patterns of women after age 30 [in the United States]. The principal data source used in this paper will be the Census Bureau's fertility and birth expectations survey from the Current Population Survey (CPS)....A brief summary of the origins and evolving problems associated with using birth expectations data as a method to predict future fertility swings will first be examined. Next, the usefulness of expectations data as a predictor of the future will be discussed in the context of historical patterns of childbearing....Finally, this paper will examine which socioeconomic groups of women are most likely to be characterized by delays in childbearing and their current prospects for having their first birth at later ages."
