Family size and fertility control in eighteenth-century America: A study of quaker families

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Abstract
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.

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