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Abstract
The number of births to Asian Americans is increasing as a proportion of both non-white births and all births in the U.S. This dissertation seeks to examine the fertility differences observed between the Asian Americans and white population. The examination concentrates on the six largest Asian groups: the Japanese, the Chinese, the Filipinas, the Koreans, the Asian Indians and the Vietnamese. Differences between whites and non-whites are also investigated. The period of analysis is from 1980 to 1990.
We use the newly available 1990 Census 5-percent Public Use Micro-data Samples (PUMSs) and the 1980 Census 5-percent PUMSs for this study. The two dependent variables in this study are children ever born (CEB) and current fertility. CEB is available directly from the Census 5-percent PUMS questionnaire. The second variable, current fertility, is based on own-children methodology where children are matched with their presumed mother in the same household. The method of decomposition is employed to examine the effect of the Asian-white differences in marital status and education on fertility differences.
Our results show the following characteristics of Asian American fertility: (1) The non-marital fertility rates of the Asians are generally lower than those of whites. (2) Fertility rates of Asian women who are under age twenty-five are also lower than those of whites. (3) Fertility rates of Asian women aged thirty and over are higher than those of whites. (4) The Asian American fertility pattern as discussed have persisted since the late 1950s as first documented by Rindfuss and Sweet in 1977. (5) The Asian American fertility pattern is consistent across educational levels. Difference in educational composition is not an important factor accounting for the Asian-white fertility differences. (6) The age pattern of fertility for the Asian Americans is also distinctively different from that of African Americans.
While this study intends to provide the most recent and detailed description of the Asian-white fertility differences, the analysis is important for future projections of the size and composition of the U.S. population.
