Another Look at the Indianapolis Fertility Data

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Abstract
In every study of urban differential fertility, measures of socioeconomics status have emerged as the primary determinant of fertility behavior. For the majority of these studies the relationship between status variables and fertility has been inverse. The "number and spacing planned" couples from the Indianapolis Study have been conspicuous because this inverse relationship is absent. The hypothesis is presented that the presence of farm migrants in cities accounts for much of the tendency for birth rates in cities to be highest among the laborers and lowest among the white collar workers. In essential respects the data support this. The occupational class differences in fertility were much weaker among the two-generation urbanites than among the migrants from farms residing in Indianapolis. As farm migrants become a smaller and smaller part of the urban population, it is to be expected that the inverse relationship between socioeconomic variables and fertility will continue to contract. The meaning of this changing relationship is not at all clear. Two possible interpretations of the shifting fertility patterns have been presented. Neither of these can be fully substantiated on the basis of the data currently available.

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