Transitions Between Childlessness and First Birth: Three Generations of U.S. Women

This report analyzes the patterns of childlessness, and conversely, the first-birth patterns of three birth cohorts of American women. For this report, a cohort refers to women born in the same year. The cohorts compared were women born in 1910, 1935, and 1960—who, consequently, turned 25 during the Great Depression, the Baby Boom, and lastly, the post-Baby Boom period. The purpose of the report is to explore the differences in fertility characteristics of these three generations of women and to consider those differences in light of the social and economic conditions at the time.