Twentieth-Century Family Life Cycle and Its Determinants in the United States

Abstract

Fertility schedules, one of the most important vital statistics, are used to construct a new period and cohort time series macrolevel data set of family life cycle/ childbearing and fertility-inhibiting indices for the United States in the twentieth century. Calculation of these macrolevel indices on an annual basis is accom plished by the application of recent demographic methodologies, which require only knowledge of age-specific fertility rates. These annual sets of indices, which otherwise would require detailed biographical information on the dates of such events, are needed to fully capture demographic change and to quantitatively ascertain changes in fertility behavior and attitudes and, hence, describe family structure and the timing and speed of child production for better understanding of American society.