Religious Differentials in the Net Reproduction Rate

Abstract

C ONSIDERABLE information is available about differentials in the fertility rate in the United States and in numerous foreign countries.' Nevertheless, in two respects the field of fertility differentials in the United States needs further study: (a) in regard to possible religious differentials at any given time, and (b) in regard to possible trends in these religious differentials. It is the purpose here to attempt to study the net reproduction rates of Roman Catholic and Jewish stocks in this country, and trends in these rates. Several studies have been made in an attempt to measure religious differentials in fertility,2 and all of them have shown the Catholics to have higher fertility than the non-Catholics. However, of all these studies, only one, Stouffer's, made any attempt to hold constant the factors of age, urbanism, and economic status, three factors which are known to influence fertility greatly. With these three factors held constant, Stouffer found the Catholic birth rate to be higher than that of comparable non-Catholics, but he also found that the former fell much faster than the non-Catholic rate during the 1920's, and gave every evidence of soon overtaking the latter. The results of this present study corroborate, in general, Stouffer's findings. Prior to 1930, Catholicism may have been a factor tending to raise the birth rate. The fertility of the Roman Catholics, however, appears to be decreasing rapidly, so that by 1930 their fertility appears to have closely approached that of the non-Catholics.