Family size and fertility control in eighteenth-century America

A study of quaker families

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4268752
AutoresRobert V Wells (autor de correspondencia)
Año1971
Volumen25
Número1
Páginas73-82
Fecha de publicación1971-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPopulation Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0032-4728 • E-ISSN: 1477-4747
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00324728.1971.10405784
PMID11630442
OpenAlexW2016428334
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas2

It has long been assumed, on the basis of the information provided by the colonial and early national censuses, that the birth rate in eighteenth-century America must have been very high to account both for the rapid rate of growth and the high proportion of the population under the age of sixteen. Employing several methods of analysis, a number of experts have agreed in estimating that the birth rate at the end of the eighteenth and in the early nineteenth century was about 50, or a little higher. At the same time, the evidence in the decennial censuses is sufficient to indicate that the birth rate ofthe American population had begun a long-term decline by the early nineteenth century and that this lasted until the 1930's. It would obviously be of interest to know when and why the reduction in the level of childbearing began, but the limitations of the early census data make it unlikely that such information ever will be available for the population of the United States as a whole

Birth control · Birth rate · Census · Developed country · Family planning · Fertility · Genealogy · Geography · Historical demography · Population · Population growth · Population statistics · Research methodology · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History