Religious Affiliation and the Fertility of Married Couples

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Abstract
Using the 1973 and 1976 National Surveys of Family Growth, nationally representative samples totaling 14000 married women, a wide range of national estimates of the fertility of married couples in religious groups in the USA is presented. These are the most recent, most inclusive or only national estimates of these parameters. The white-Protestant/white-Catholic difference in family size persisted even after controlling for age, education and residence. Fertility of Catholic couples is negatively related to the wife''s education, a reversal of a positive association in the 1950s and 1960s. Fertility of Jewish couples was lower than that of Protestant and Catholic couples before and after multivariate adjustment. Fertility of black Catholic couples was much lower than that of black Protestant couples but the difference disappeared after controlling for age, education and residence. Fertility of white and black wives with no religious affiliation was much lower than for Protestants before and after multivariate adjustment. Religious affilation continues to be an indispensable datum for understanding fertility differences in the USA.

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