The percentage of births to unmarried women in the United States has more than doubled since 1980, reaching 40 percent in 2023. This significant shift in family structure reflects changing societal norms and demographic trends over the past four decades. The rise in births outside of marriage has implications for family dynamics, social support systems, and public policy. Age and ethnicity factors in birth rates While the overall percentage of births to unmarried women has stabilized around 40 percent in recent years, birth rates vary significantly across age groups and ethnicities. Unsurprisingly, in 2023, women between 20 and 34 years old had the highest birth rate at 83 births per 1,000 women, while teenagers aged 15 to 19 had the lowest rate at 8 births per 1,000 women. Additionally, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women had the highest fertility rate among all race/ethnicities in 2022, with approximately 2,237.5 births per 1,000 women, compared to the national average of 1,656.5 births per 1,000 women. Changing household structures The increase in births to unmarried women has contributed to evolving household structures in the United States. In 2023, there were approximately 15.18 million families with a single mother, a significant increase from previous decades. This trend aligns with the overall rise in births outside of marriage and suggests a growing need for support systems and policies that address the unique challenges faced by single-parent households.

This dataset includes birth rates for unmarried women by age group, race, and Hispanic origin in the United States since 1970.

Methods for collecting information on marital status changed over the reporting period and have been documented in:

• Ventura SJ, Bachrach CA. Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940–99. National vital statistics reports; vol 48 no 16. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2000. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_16.pdf. • National Center for Health Statistics. User guide to the 2013 natality public use file. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2014. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/VitalStatsOnline.htm.

National data on births by Hispanics origin exclude data for Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in 1989; for New Hampshire and Oklahoma in 1990; for New Hampshire in 1991 and 1992. Information on reporting Hispanic origin is detailed in the Technical Appendix for the 1999 public-use natality data file (see (ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/DVS/natality/Nat1999doc.pdf.)

All birth data by race before 1980 are based on race of the child. Starting in 1980, birth data by race are based on race of the mother.

In 2023, there were about 15.09 million children living with a single mother in the United States, and about 3.05 million children living with a single father. The number of children living with a single mother is down from its peak in 2012, and the number of children living with a single father is down from its peak in 2005.

Marriage and divorce in the United States

Despite popular opinion in the United States that “half of all marriages end in divorce,” the divorce rate in the U.S. has fallen significantly since 1992. The marriage rate, which has also been decreasing since the 1990s, was still higher than the divorce rate in 2021. Half of all marriages may not end in divorce, but it does seem that fewer people are choosing to get married in the first place.

New family structures

In addition to a falling marriage rate, fewer people in the U.S. have children under the age of 18 living in the house in comparison to 1970. Over the past decade, the share of families with children under 18, whether that be married couples or single parents, has stayed mostly steady, although the number of births in the U.S. has also fallen.

United States US: Law Prohibits or Invalidates Child or Early Marriage: 1=Yes; 0=No data was reported at 1.000 NA in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.000 NA for 2015. United States US: Law Prohibits or Invalidates Child or Early Marriage: 1=Yes; 0=No data is updated yearly, averaging 1.000 NA from Sep 2015 (Median) to 2017, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.000 NA in 2017 and a record low of 1.000 NA in 2017. United States US: Law Prohibits or Invalidates Child or Early Marriage: 1=Yes; 0=No data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Policy and Institutions. Law prohibits or invalidates child or early marriage is whether there are provisions that prevent the marriage of girls, boys, or both before they reach the legal age of marriage or the age of marriage with consent, including, for example, a prohibition on registering the marriage or provisions stating that such a marriage is null and void.; ; World Bank: Women, Business and the Law.; ;

The 1965 National Fertility Survey was the first of three surveys that succeeded the Growth of American Families surveys (1955 and 1960) aimed at examining marital fertility and family planning in the United States. Currently married women were queried on the following main topics: residence history, marital history, education, income and employment, family background, religiosity, attitudes toward contraception and sterilization, birth control pill use and other methods of contraception, fecundity, family size, fertility expectations and intentions, abortion, and world population growth. Respondents were asked about their residence history, including what state they grew up in, whether they had lived with both of their parents at the age of 14, and whether they had spent any time living on a farm. Respondents were also asked a series of questions about their marital history. Specifically, they were asked about the duration of their current marriage, whether their current marriage was their first marriage, total number of times they had been married, how previous marriages ended, length of engagement, and whether their husband had children from a previous marriage. Respondents were asked what was the highest grade of school that they had completed, whether they had attended a co-ed college, and to give the same information about their husbands. Respondents were asked about their 1965 income, both individual and combined, their occupation, whether they had been employed since marriage, if and when they stopped working, and whether they were self-employed. They were also asked about their husband's recent employment status. With respect to family background, respondents were asked about their parents' and their husband's parents' nationalities, education, religious preferences, and total number children born alive to their mother and mother-in-law, respectively. In addition, respondents were asked about their, and their husband's, religious practices including their religious preferences, whether they had ever received any Catholic education, how religious-minded they perceived themselves to be, how often they prayed at home, and how often they went to see a minister, rabbi, or priest. Respondents were asked to give their opinions with respect to contraception and sterilization. They were asked whether they approved or disapproved of contraception in general, as well as specific forms of contraception, whether information about birth control should be available to married and unmarried couples, and whether the federal government should support birth control programs in the United States and in other countries. They were also asked whether they approved or disapproved of sterilization operations for men and women and whether they thought such a surgery would impair a man's sexual ability. Respondents were asked about their own knowledge and use of birth control pills. They were asked if they had ever used birth control pills and when they first began using them. They were then asked to give a detailed account of their use of birth control pills between 1960 and 1965. Respondents were also asked to explain when they discontinued use of birth control pills and what the motivation was for doing so. Respondents were also asked about their reproductive cycle, the most fertile days in their cycle, the regularity of their cycle, and whether there were any known reasons why they could not have or would have problems having children. Respondents were asked about their ideal number of children, whether they had their ideal number of children or if they really wanted fewer children, as well as whether their husbands wanted more or less children than they did. Respondents were then asked how many additional births they expected, how many total births they expected, when they expected their next child, and at what age they expected to have their last child. Respondents were asked how they felt about interrupting a pregnancy and whether they approved of abortion given different circumstances such as if the pregnancy endangered the woman's health, if the woman was not married, if the couple could not afford another child, if the couple did not want another child, if the woman thought the child would be deformed, or if the woman had been raped. Respondents were also asked to share their opinions with respect to world population growth. T

CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION

The performance measures are used to evaluate each State's performance and measure results in the Child Support Enforcement program. These measures emphasize paternity establishment, support order establishment, collection of current support, collection of arrearages, and cost effectiveness. The performance measures, except cost effectiveness which can only be measured annually, are calculated from data which is reported on federal form OCSE 157.

CASES WITH SUPPORT ORDERS This metric measures the proportion of IV-D cases with support orders established.

Equation: Number of IV-D Cases with Support Orders divided by Total Number of IV-D Cases

IV-D Paternity Establishment Percentage: This metric measures the proportion of children in the IV-D caseload as of the end of the preceding FFY who were born out of wedlock is the total number of children in the IV-D caseload in the federal fiscal year born out of wedlock with paternity established or acknowledged divided by the total number of children in the IV-D caseload as of the end of the preceding FFY who were born out of wedlock. .

Equation: Total # of Children in IV-D Caseload in the Federal Fiscal Year or, as of the end of the Fiscal Year who were born out of wedlock with Paternity Established or Acknowledged divided by Total # of Children in IV-D Caseload as of the end of the preceding Federal Fiscal Year who were Born Out of Wedlock

COLLECTIONS ON CURRENT SUPPORT This measure focuses on the proportion of current support due that is collected on IV-D cases.

Equation: Total Dollars Collected for Current Support in IV-D Cases during the Federal Fiscal Year divided by Total Dollars Owed for Current Support in IV-D Cases during the Federal Fiscal Year

COLLECTIONS ON ARREARS The measure assesses efforts to collect money from those cases with an arrearage due. The measure specifically counts paying cases, and not total arrears dollars collected.

Equation: Total number of IV-D cases paying toward arrears during the Federal Fiscal Year divided by Total number of IV-D cases with arrears due

The Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation was launched in 2003 to develop, to implement, and to test the effectiveness of a program aimed at strengthening low-income couples' marriages as one approach for supporting stable and nurturing family environments and parents' and children's well-being. The evaluation was led by MDRC and was sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, United States Department of Health and Human Services.The SHM program was a voluntary yearlong marriage education program for low-income married couples who had children or were expecting a child. The program provided a series of group workshops based on structured curricula designed to enhance couples' relationships; supplemental activities to build on workshop themes; and family support services to address participation barriers, connect families with other services, and reinforce curricular themes. The study sample consists of 6,298 couples (12,596 adult sample members) who were expecting a child or had a child under 18 years old at the time of study entry. The sample consists primarily of low-to-modest income, married couples with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. In each family, one child was randomly selected to be the focus of any child-related measures gathered in the data collection activities. These children ranged from pre-birth to 14 years old at the time of enrollment in the study. Follow-up interviews were conducted at 12 and 30 months after baseline data collection. More detail is provided in the study documentation.

NOTE: For information on confidentiality protection, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/sf1.pdf..Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census..NOTE: "Families" consist of a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state issuing marriage certificates for same-sex couples. Same-sex couples are included in the families category if there is at least one additional person related to the householder by birth or adoption. Responses of "same-sex spouse" were edited during processing to "unmarried partner."

The 45 men who have served as the President of the United States (officially there have been 46 as Grover Cleveland is counted twice) have fathered, adopted or allegedly fathered at least 190 children. Of these 190, 169 were conceived naturally, eleven were adopted and there are ten reasonable cases of alleged paternity (possibly more). Today, there are 34 living presidential children; the oldest of which is Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, daughter of Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson; the youngest is Barron Trump, son of Donald and Melania Trump. John Tyler is the president who fathered the most children, having fifteen children over two marriages (and allegedly fathering more with slaves), while his successor, James K. Polk, remains the only U.S. president never to have fathered or adopted any known children. Coincidentally, as of November 2020, the U.S.' tenth president, John Tyler, has two grandsons who are still alive today, despite the fact that he was born in 1790.

The First Family

The president, their children and spouse are collectively known as the First Family of the United States; the current first family is made up of President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, as well as their children, Hunter and Ashley. Two of President Biden's children died before he was elected to office; his son Beau died of cancer in 2015, while his one year old daughter Naomi was killed in a car accident in 1972, along with Biden's wife, Neilia (who was also Beau and Hunter's mother). Two presidents' sons have gone on to assume the presidency themselves; these were John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush respectively, while one presidential grandson, Benjamin Harrison, later became president.

Alleged children

Three U.S. presidents have allegedly fathered illegitimate children with slaves. The most well-known and substantial of these allegations relates to Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings; who was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife Martha (with whom he had already fathered six children). Following Martha's passing in 1782, its is believed that the future-president would then go on to have a relationship with Hemings that spanned four decades and saw the birth of as many as eight children between 1790 and 1808. Hemings, thought to have been 14 years old at the beginning of the relationship (Jefferson was 44), and her children remained enslaved to Jefferson until his death in 1826. DNA tests conducted in recent years have confirmed a genetic connection between the Hemings and Jefferson families, and the majority of historians accept that Thomas Jefferson was the father of at least six of Hemings' children. Less substantial claims have also been levelled at John Tyler, with political opponents claiming that he fathered several children with slaves in the years following his first wife's death; although these claims have been widely disregarded by historians, with little investigation into their validity. It is alleged that William Henry Harrison also fathered at least six children with one of his slaves, Dilsia, however these claims are anecdotal and have been disregarded or ignored by historians. In spite of this, to this day, there are some African-American families in the U.S. who claim to be the descendants of both Harrison and Tyler.

It is generally accepted that two other presidents, Grover Cleveland and Warren G. Harding, fathered children through extramarital affairs. It is likely that Grover Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock in 1874; even paying child support to the mother, acknowledging that he could have been the father. When the child's mother accused Cleveland of rape, he had her institutionalized to discredit these accusations, and the child was taken away and raised by Cleveland's friends. The issue came to light nationally during the 1884 election campaign, but Cleveland still emerged victorious. In 1927, four years after his death in office, it came to light that Warren G. Harding had fathered a child out of wedlock a year before winning the 1920 election. The child was conceived during one of his two long-term, extramarital affairs, and Harding did pay the mother child support, although he kept the affair and child a secret. Harding died before the child's fourth birthday, his family dismissed these claims as rumors, claiming that he was infertile; however, DNA tests confirmed that the child was his in 2015. While there have been numerous accusations of presidents' infidelity in the past century, particularly relating to John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump; Trump is the only president since Harding to have had a child out of wedlock (although the couple did get married two months after the birth of their daughter, Tiffany).

NOTE: For information on confidentiality protection, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/sf1.pdf..Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census..NOTE: "Families" consist of a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state issuing marriage certificates for same-sex couples. Same-sex couples are included in the families category if there is at least one additional person related to the householder by birth or adoption. Responses of "same-sex spouse" were edited during processing to "unmarried partner."

In 2022, the divorce rate in the United States stood at *** per 1,000 of the population. Divorce in the U.S. Divorce is the termination of a marital union. In the United States, as in most other countries, it is a legal process in which a judge or another legal authority dissolves the bonds of matrimony existing between two persons. The process of divorce also normally involves issues surrounding distribution of property, financial support of the former spouse, child custody and child support. A divorce also allows a person to marry again.In the United States, divorce is, like marriage, a matter for state governments, not the federal government. Although divorce laws vary from state to state, for example on which terms a divorce can be arranged, a divorce must be certified by a court of law to become effective. A declining divorce rate Over the last couple of years, both the marriage rate and the divorce rate have been declining in the United States. As of 2009, the average length of a first marriage in the U.S. was ***** years, while the average length of a second marriage was about ** years.

Geographic coverage

National Coverage

Universe

The target population is all births recorded on the NPR between 1998 and 2010 for South African citizens and permanent residents, regardless of which year the birth occurred. All births that occurred in South Africa with parents being non-South African citizens or not permanent residents were excluded.

Sampling procedure

The registration of births in South Africa is governed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992), as amended, and is administered by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) using Form DHA-24 (Notice of birth), which recently replaced Form BI-24 that was previously used. Notice of the birth must be given by one of the parents or; if neither parent is available to do so, the person having charge of the child or a person requested by the parents to do so. The person requested to register the birth must have a written mandate from the child's parents which must also include the reasons why neither of the parents is in a position to register the birth. The birth of a child outside the country; where at least one parent is a South African citizen; can be registered at any South African Mission abroad.Documentary proof in the form of a birth certificate of the foreign country must accompany the Notice of Birth.

The Act states that a child must be registered within 30 days of birth. Where the notice of a birth is given after the expiration of 30 days from the date of the birth, the Director-General may demand that reasons for the late notice be furnished and that the fingerprints be taken of the person whose notice of birth is given. Where the notice of a birth is given for a person aged 15 years and older, the birth shall be registered if it complies with the prescribed requirements for a late registration of birth.

Following the registration of a birth, a birth certificate is issued by the DHA. Citizens and permanent residents receive computer-printed abridged birth certificates and non-citizens receive handwritten certificates. The information of South African citizens and permanent residents is captured on the National Population Register (NPR).

The following persons and particulars are eligible to be included on the NPR:

• All children born of South African citizens and permanent residents when the notice of the birth is given within one year after the birth of the child.

• All children born of South African citizens and permanent residents when the notice of the birth is given one year after the birth of the child; together with the prescribed requirement for a late registration of birth.

• All South African citizens and permanent residents who, upon attainment of the age of 16, applied for and were granted identification cards (or books).

• All South African citizens and permanent residents who die at any age after birth.

• All South African citizens and permanent residents who depart permanently from South Africa.

The DHA captures information on places based on magisterial districts using the twelfth edition of the Standard Code List of Areas (Central Statistics Services, 1995). Stats SA then recodes the magisterial districts into district councils (DCs), metropolitan areas (metros) and provinces based on the 2011 municipal boundaries. The data sets for 1998 to 2010 have all been recoded according to the 2011 municipal boundaries.

It should be noted that the distribution of births by DCs, metros and provinces are approximate figures; as there was no perfect match of magisterial districts for all DCs, metros and provinces since some magisterial districts are situated in more than one DC, metro or province. Such magisterial districts were allocated to the district council where the majority of the land area falls (see the folder on maps). The only exception was with Nigel in Gauteng province. The majority of the land area of Nigel magisterial district is in Sedibeng district council (which is mainly farm areas and therefore sparsely populated) while the majority of the population lives in Ekurhuleni metropolitan area. As such, Nigel was classified to Ekurhuleni and not Sedibeng.

Magisterial district of birth refers to the district of birth occurrence for births registered before 15 years of age. For those that were registered from 15 years of age, district refers to the district of birth registration. Furthermore, from 2009, the processing of late birth registrations from age 15 were centralised at the DHA head office in Pretoria. As such, the late birth registrations processed in Pretoria from 15 years have a district code of Pretoria; even if they occurred in other areas. There were a few exceptional cases which were registered in Pretoria; but were not captured using the Pretoria code.

Mode of data collection

Other [oth]

Research instrument

NOTICE OF BIRTH - [Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992]

A. DETAILS OF THE CHILD

B. DETAILS OF FATHER (PARENT A)

C. DETAILS OF MOTHER (PARENT B)

D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF PATERNITY OF A CHILD BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK

E. DETAILS OF THE LEGAL GUARDIAN/SOCIAL WORKER*

F. DECLARATION

G. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY - OFFICE OF ORIGIN

Cleaning operations

Data capturing of information on births is done by DHA officials. The data is captured directly onto the Population Register Database at Nucleus Bureau. These transactions are used to update the database of the NPR and the population register database. As soon as the DHA has captured the data; the data is made available on the mainframe. The data is then downloaded via ftp; or collected from the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) written on a CD by Stats SA. For the purpose of producing vital statistics, the following system is followed: all the civil transactions carried out at all DHA offices are written onto a cassette every day. At the end of every month, a combined set of cassettes is created containing all the transactions done for the month. These transactions are downloaded and the birth transactions are extracted for processing at Stats SA. The year in which the births are registered is the registration year. Using this information, Stats SA provides a breakdown of the registered births according to the year in which the births occurred.

While birth information sent to Stats SA is the same as that in the population register, there is a difference in the format between the two. On one hand, Stats SA’s data are based on births registered during the year (registration-based), while on the other hand, entries in the population register reflect the date of birth.

Data appraisal

Users are cautioned on the following limitations of the data:

• Father’s age had a high percentage of cases where information was unspecified or unknown for all the years.
• Data for 1998 and 1999 have incorrect information on month of birth, which could not be resolved.

Note: - Unknown : refers to cases where the answer provided is not correct or not possible given the options available. - Unspecified: refers to cases where no response was given.

To understand marriage patterns, homogamy, and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective, we investigated if a prevalence of ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, and if ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages have an impact on fertility. Furthermore, we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behavior. We used the census data of 369,121 women in the United States married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). We used linear mixed models to determine the association between the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (genetics and parental environment) of marriage behavior using a linear mixed model. We found that ancestral heterogamous marriages are more frequent compared to homogamous marriages, but only if all ancestry groups are included. If ancestry is aggregated, homogamous marriages are more frequent compared to heterogamous marriages. Most of the variance (up to 27%) in inter-ancestry marriage and fertility (up to 12%) is explained by ancestry per se, followed by the ratio of individuals of a certain ancestral background in a county (∼6%), indicating a frequency depending selection into marriage: the more individuals of a certain ancestry live in a county, the lower is the tendency to marry someone of a different ancestral background. Furthermore, we found that about 12% (depending to some extent on the clustering) of the marriage behavior is heritable. Being in a homogamous marriage and the income of the spouse are both significantly positively associated with the number of children women have and the probability that women have at least one child, albeit explaining only a very low proportion of the overall variance. The most important factor (in terms of variance explained) for being in an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, for the number of children, and for childlessness is the ancestry of the women. Most children are born to women of Irish, French, and Norwegian ancestry (Irish X̄: 3.24, French X̄: 3.21, and Norwegian X̄: 3.18), the lowest number of children is to women of Latvian, Rumanian, and Russian ancestry (Latvian X̄: 2.26, Rumanian X̄: 2.19, and Russian X̄: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on the basis of our data, only a small heritability for in-group vs. out-group marriage behavior is indicated (∼12% of variance explained).

NOTE: For information on confidentiality protection, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/cd113.pdf..Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census..NOTE: "Families" consist of a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state issuing marriage certificates for same-sex couples. Same-sex couples are included in the families category if there is at least one additional person related to the householder by birth or adoption. Responses of "same-sex spouse" were edited during processing to "unmarried partner."

This asset contains disaggregated data on the prevented child marriages in Bangladesh by location. The Protecting Human Rights (PHR) Program works to reduce domestic violence, child marriage and related human rights abuses in 102 unions under eight upazilas of six districts. With support from USAID from March 2011 to March 2017, PHR was implemented by Plan International Bangladesh, the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association and 11 local NGOs. PHR uses an integrated and broad-based approach that includes advocacy, capacity building, access to justice, services for survivors, and mass awareness and educational projects.

The second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), conducted in 1998-99, provides information on fertility, mortality, family planning, and important aspects of nutrition, health, and health care. The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) coordinated the survey, which collected information from a nationally representative sample of more than 90,000 ever-married women age 15-49. The NFHS-2 sample covers 99 percent of India's population living in all 26 states. This report is based on the survey data for 25 of the 26 states, however, since data collection in Tripura was delayed due to local problems in the state. IIPS also coordinated the first National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1) in 1992-93. Most of the types of information collected in NFHS-2 were also collected in the earlier survey, making it possible to identify trends over the intervening period of six and one-half years. In addition, the NFHS-2 questionnaire covered a number of new or expanded topics with important policy implications, such as reproductive health, women's autonomy, domestic violence, women's nutrition, anaemia, and salt iodization. The NFHS-2 survey was carried out in two phases. Ten states were surveyed in the first phase which began in November 1998 and the remaining states (except Tripura) were surveyed in the second phase which began in March 1999. The field staff collected information from 91,196 households in these 25 states and interviewed 89,199 eligible women in these households. In addition, the survey collected information on 32,393 children born in the three years preceding the survey. One health investigator on each survey team measured the height and weight of eligible women and children and took blood samples to assess the prevalence of anaemia. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS Three-quarters (73 percent) of the population lives in rural areas. The age distribution is typical of populations that have recently experienced a fertility decline, with relatively low proportions in the younger and older age groups. Thirty-six percent of the population is below age 15, and 5 percent is age 65 and above. The sex ratio is 957 females for every 1,000 males in rural areas but only 928 females for every 1,000 males in urban areas, suggesting that more men than women have migrated to urban areas. The survey provides a variety of demographic and socioeconomic background information. In the country as a whole, 82 percent of household heads are Hindu, 12 percent are Muslim, 3 percent are Christian, and 2 percent are Sikh. Muslims live disproportionately in urban areas, where they comprise 15 percent of household heads. Nineteen percent of household heads belong to scheduled castes, 9 percent belong to scheduled tribes, and 32 percent belong to other backward classes (OBCs). Two-fifths of household heads do not belong to any of these groups. Questions about housing conditions and the standard of living of households indicate some improvements since the time of NFHS-1. Sixty percent of households in India now have electricity and 39 percent have piped drinking water compared with 51 percent and 33 percent, respectively, at the time of NFHS-1. Sixty-four percent of households have no toilet facility compared with 70 percent at the time of NFHS-1. About three-fourths (75 percent) of males and half (51 percent) of females age six and above are literate, an increase of 6-8 percentage points from literacy rates at the time of NFHS-1. The percentage of illiterate males varies from 6-7 percent in Mizoram and Kerala to 37 percent in Bihar and the percentage of illiterate females varies from 11 percent in Mizoram and 15 percent in Kerala to 65 percent in Bihar. Seventy-nine percent of children age 6-14 are attending school, up from 68 percent in NFHS-1. The proportion of children attending school has increased for all ages, particularly for girls, but girls continue to lag behind boys in school attendance. Moreover, the disparity in school attendance by sex grows with increasing age of children. At age 6-10, 85 percent of boys attend school compared with 78 percent of girls. By age 15-17, 58 percent of boys attend school compared with 40 percent of girls. The percentage of girls 6-17 attending school varies from 51 percent in Bihar and 56 percent in Rajasthan to over 90 percent in Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. Women in India tend to marry at an early age. Thirty-four percent of women age 15-19 are already married including 4 percent who are married but gauna has yet to be performed. These proportions are even higher in the rural areas. Older women are more likely than younger women to have married at an early age: 39 percent of women currently age 45-49 married before age 15 compared with 14 percent of women currently age 15-19. Although this indicates that the proportion of women who marry young is declining rapidly, half the women even in the age group 20-24 have married before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years. On average, women are five years younger than the men they marry. The median age at marriage varies from about 15 years in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh to 23 years in Goa. As part of an increasing emphasis on gender issues, NFHS-2 asked women about their participation in household decisionmaking. In India, 91 percent of women are involved in decision-making on at least one of four selected topics. A much lower proportion (52 percent), however, are involved in making decisions about their own health care. There are large variations among states in India with regard to women's involvement in household decisionmaking. More than three out of four women are involved in decisions about their own health care in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Punjab compared with about two out of five or less in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Rajasthan. Thirty-nine percent of women do work other than housework, and more than two-thirds of these women work for cash. Only 41 percent of women who earn cash can decide independently how to spend the money that they earn. Forty-three percent of working women report that their earnings constitute at least half of total family earnings, including 18 percent who report that the family is entirely dependent on their earnings. Women's work-participation rates vary from 9 percent in Punjab and 13 percent in Haryana to 60-70 percent in Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. FERTILITY AND FAMILY PLANNING Fertility continues to decline in India. At current fertility levels, women will have an average of 2.9 children each throughout their childbearing years. The total fertility rate (TFR) is down from 3.4 children per woman at the time of NFHS-1, but is still well above the replacement level of just over two children per woman. There are large variations in fertility among the states in India. Goa and Kerala have attained below replacement level fertility and Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab are at or close to replacement level fertility. By contrast, fertility is 3.3 or more children per woman in Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. More than one-third to less than half of all births in these latter states are fourth or higher-order births compared with 7-9 percent of births in Kerala, Goa, and Tamil Nadu. Efforts to encourage the trend towards lower fertility might usefully focus on groups within the population that have higher fertility than average. In India, rural women and women from scheduled tribes and scheduled castes have somewhat higher fertility than other women, but fertility is particularly high for illiterate women, poor women, and Muslim women. Another striking feature is the high level of childbearing among young women. More than half of women age 20-49 had their first birth before reaching age 20, and women age 15-19 account for almost one-fifth of total fertility. Studies in India and elsewhere have shown that health and mortality risks increase when women give birth at such young ages?both for the women themselves and for their children. Family planning programmes focusing on women in this age group could make a significant impact on maternal and child health and help to reduce fertility. INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY NFHS-2 provides estimates of infant and child mortality and examines factors associated with the survival of young children. During the five years preceding the survey, the infant mortality rate was 68 deaths at age 0-11 months per 1,000 live births, substantially lower than 79 per 1,000 in the five years preceding the NFHS-1 survey. The child mortality rate, 29 deaths at age 1-4 years per 1,000 children reaching age one, also declined from the corresponding rate of 33 per 1,000 in NFHS-1. Ninety-five children out of 1,000 born do not live to age five years. Expressed differently, 1 in 15 children die in the first year of life, and 1 in 11 die before reaching age five. Child-survival programmes might usefully focus on specific groups of children with particularly high infant and child mortality rates, such as children who live in rural areas, children whose mothers are illiterate, children belonging to scheduled castes or scheduled tribes, and children from poor households. Infant mortality rates are more than two and one-half times as high for women who did not receive any of the recommended types of maternity related medical care than for mothers who did receive all recommended types of care. HEALTH, HEALTH CARE, AND NUTRITION Promotion of maternal and child health has been one of the most important components of the Family Welfare Programme of the Government of India. One goal is for each pregnant woman to receive at least three antenatal check-ups plus two tetanus toxoid injections and a full course of iron and folic acid supplementation. In India, mothers of 65 percent of the children born in the three years preceding NFHS-2 received at least one antenatal

The federal government has made a long-standing commitment to supporting healthy relationships and stable families. In the mid-1990s, Congress created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, which provided states with the funding and flexibility to support activities that promoted healthy marriages. Beginning in the mid-2000s, the federal government provided additional funding specifically to support healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE). The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversees these funds and distributes them through a set of competitive multiyear grants to organizations nationwide. The Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation was a five-site, random assignment evaluation of HMRE programs, and was overseen by ACF's Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) with funding from OFA. The five sites were selected from among a cohort of 46 organizations awarded multiyear grants from OFA in September 2015. The sites were selected for their potential to fill gaps in the evidence base on the effectiveness of HMRE programming and to identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of these programs. The grantees do not necessarily represent the overall grant program. Further, the findings from STREAMS were not intended to generalize to all funded grantees. The STREAMS evaluation examined a range of populations that are served by HMRE programming. One site provided relationship skills education to youth in high school; two sites provided relationship skills education to adults as individuals; and two sites provided relationship skills education to adults as couples. The five sites also addressed other evaluation priorities for STREAMS, including examining programs that integrated relationship skills and economic stability services and assessing implementation factors such as program dosage and strategies to boost program attendance. For each site, the STREAMS evaluation included both a random assignment impact study and an in-depth process study. The five sites in the STREAMS evaluation are described below. More Than Conquerors Inc. (MTCI). Trained facilitators from MTCI, a nonprofit social service agency near Atlanta, Georgia, delivered two different versions of the Relationship Smarts PLUS (RQ+) Version 3.0 curriculum (Dibble Institute 2021) for high school students in two Atlanta-area high schools. For STREAMS, the impact study team evaluated the full 12-session curriculum and a shortened 8-session version against a control group of students who were not offered any HMRE programming (Alamillo and Doran 2022; Alamillo and Goesling 2021). Family and Workforce Centers of America (FWCA). FWCA delivered Career STREAMS, an integrated relationship education and pre-employment training program for adult job seekers with low incomes. Career STREAMS incorporated an HMRE curriculum called Within My Reach (Pearson et al. 2015) into an existing employment program offered through an employment center in St. Louis, Missouri. For STREAMS, the impact study team compared a group that was offered participation in the Career STREAMS program to a control group that was offered participation in FWCA's traditional employment training program (Goesling et al. 2022). University of Denver (Denver). In collaboration with the Denver Health hospital system, researchers from the University of Denver delivered MotherWise, a program for low-income adult women who either were expecting or just had a baby. MotherWise was based on the Within My Reach curriculum. For STREAMS, the impact study team compared a group that was offered the MotherWise program to a control group that was not offered the program (Patnaik and Wood 2021; Patnaik, Gonzalez, and Wood 2022). The Parenting Center (TPC). TPC in Fort Worth, Texas, delivered Empowering Families, a program for romantically involved, adult couples with low incomes who are raising children. The program featured workshop-based relationship education along with case management, employment services, and financial coaching. For STREAMS, the impact study team compared a group of couples that was offered participation in Empowering Families to a control group that was not offered the program (Wu et al. 2021).

To examine the causes of marital instability throughout the life course, six waves of data were collected between 1980 and 2000 from married individuals who were between the ages of 18 and 55 in 1980. Information collected in 1980 (Wave I) focused on the effects of wives' participation in the labor force on marriage and marital instability. Measures predicting marital instability and divorce and assessing marital quality were developed. Variables include information on earnings, commitment to work, hours worked, and occupational status. The focus of Wave II, conducted in 1983, was to link changes in factors such as economic resources, wife's employment, presence of children, marital satisfaction, life goals, and health to actions intended to dissolve a marriage, such as divorce and permanent separation. Information on adjustment to marital dissolution, relationship with in-laws, size of home, parents' employment, use of free time, club membership, child-care arrangements, and responsibility for chores was gathered. Wave III, collected in 1988, further examined the impact of changes in employment, economics, and health on marital relationships. Questions were asked about divorce and remarriage, investment of energy and resource use in the care of aging parents and dependent offspring, asset value, awareness of aging, mental health issues, and history of disease. In 1992, Wave IV data were collected to look at changes in employment, economics, and health. Questions were asked about retirement issues, family structure, and the impact of caring for aging parents while at the same time caring for dependent offspring. Data were also collected in 1992 and 1994 from adult offspring who were living in the household in 1980 and had reached age 19 by 1992, thus providing parallel measures with their parents regarding the quality of parent-child relationships, attitudes, and support along with exploring the impact of childhood experiences on the transition to adult life. In 1997, the fifth wave was collected and interviews were conducted with a second sample of adult offspring (N=202) along with second interviews of offspring selected in 1992 (N=606). Wave V also examined the relationship between marital quality and stability and how it relates to changes in marital quality later in life. In 2000, Wave VI data were collected. Included with the adult panel was a panel obtained from the offspring who participated in 1992 or 1997, a replicate of the original cross-section study completed in 1980 (comprised of currently married persons between the ages of 19 and 55), along with a comparison sample made up of persons who were married in 1980 and were between 39 and 75 years old. The investigators examined whether there were changes in marital quality between 1980 and 2000, identified factors that might have accounted for these changes, and sought to determine their impact on the health and longevity of older persons. New questions included in Wave VI covered whether the respondent thought he/she had an organized lifestyle, alcohol and tobacco use, health problems, physical limitations, and mattering (the level of concern expressed for and received from spouse). Among the variables included in all six waves are age, sex, educational attainment, marital status and history, attitude toward divorce, number of children, religious affiliation, and income level. The Work and Family Life Study (ICPSR 26641) was conducted in 2000 as a follow-up to the Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study. Included in the Work and Family Life Study is a new cross-section of 2,100 married people 55 years of age and younger. Additionally, the Work and Family Life Study contains a Comparison Sample comprised of 1,600 additional respondents. The purpose of this Comparison Sample is to assess potential bias due to sample attrition in the panel study.

The North Carolina State Center for Health Services (SCHS) collects yearly vital statistics. The Odum Institute holds vital statistics beginning in 1968 for births, fetal deaths, deaths, birth/infant deaths, marriages and divorce. Public marriage and divorce data are available through 1999 only.

North Carolina law defines marriage as the legal union of a male and a female (G.S. 51-1). Legal divorce or annulment can occur only by decree of an authorized court. Annulments, which void marr iage from the beginning, constitute less than one percent of the sum of these events. A divorce from bed and board is a judicial separation suspending cohabitation but not otherwise affecting the marriage bond. Divorces from bed and board are not included in these files. This study focuses on North Carolina divorces for 1990. Data includes information on the age and race of the plaintiff; information on the number of minor children; grounds for divorce; as well as the place, state, and date of the marriage.

The data is strictly numerical, there is no identifying information given about the individuals.

Demographics by household type.