Demographic implications of the New United States certificates

To assist in developing uniform reporting of vital events among the fifty states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, the United States government prepares standard certificates of birth, fetal death, death, marriage, and divorce. These model forms are revised, with the assistance of the states, approximately every ten years. Revisions are now being prepared by the National Center for Health Statistics which will become effective beginning January 1, 1968. Important new source material for demography will be introduced.Most changes will appear in the Standard Certificate of Live Birth and in the Standard Certificate of Fetal Death. An item on education of father and mother will provide detailed national data on education and fertility. The date of the last live birth to the mother and the date of the last fetal death will provide information on previous pregnancy outcome and on child-spacing. The recording of state file numbers for mates born alive and dead in the same delivery will make it easier to match live birth and fetal death certificates for the preparation of detailed tabulations on multiple births. Several new items related to maternal and child health have also been added. No significent changes were planned for the Standard Certificate of Death.The Standard Certificate of Marriage will include as new items the education of the bride and groom, the date on which the last marriage, if any, ended, and specification of the officiant as a religious or civil official. The Standard Certificate of Divorce or Annulment will obtain information on the education of husband and wife, the approximate date on which the couple separated, the mode of dissolution of the previous marriage, and the total number of living children. It is anticipated that most of the new items will be included in the certificates of all the states. The National Center for Health Statistics will provide detailed tabulations related to these items, beginning with data year 1968.Demographers are making an increased use of vital records and at the same time are extending their contacts with state health departments; in some states collaborative projects have been undertaken. Because of the importance of the source documents, which in some cases have not been exploited fully, demographers should increase their contact with the state vital statistics offices which develop, collect, and process the records. By indicating an interest in vital registration and by making their research needs known, demographers can encourage the acceptance of new concepts and collaborate in the improvement of vital records for demographic research purposes.     

Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Korean Americans in the United States in 1980

"Based on the analysis of 1980 [U.S. Census] Public-Use Microdata Samples, this article demonstrates that the Korean immigrant stream, particularly men, has been very selective even before the 1965 reform.... Despite the educational superiority and somewhat positive occupational position, Korean men in the U.S. are seriously disadvantaged in income regardless of nativity status. Korean Americans are not as successful as whites in translating their education into occupation and income; they are better educated for the same job, but experience a lower income return to the same education and the same occupation."     

Religion as a Determinant of Economic and Demographic Behavior in the United States

This note reviews and synthesizes research on the effects of religion on various economic and demographic behaviors of individuals and families in the United States, including the choice of marital partner, union formation and dissolution, fertility, female time allocation, education, wages, and wealth. Using a theoretical framework based on Gary Becker's contributions to the economics of the family, it demonstrates that religious affiliation affects economic and demographic behavior because of its impact on the costs and benefits of many interrelated decisions that people make over the life cycle. In addition, for behaviors that pertain to married-couple households, religious affiliation matters because it is a complementary trait within the context of marriage. Religiosity, another dimension of religion, also affects economic and demographic outcomes, partly because it accentuates differences by religious affiliation, partly because religious involvement has generally beneficial effects on health and well-being.     

Natural Increase: A New Source of Population Growth in Emerging Hispanic Destinations in the United States

Updated US Census Bureau estimates and race/ethnic‐specific birth and death data for the post‐2000 period are used to highlight the increasing role of natural increase as an engine of population growth in emerging Hispanic destinations. Newly emerging Hispanic growth areas are distinguished from established and high‐growth areas from the 1990s. The findings document that recent Hispanic population gains have been generated increasingly by natural increase—the excess of Hispanic births over deaths. Hispanics accounted for 46 percent of the population gain and 53 percent of the natural increase in nonmetro America in 2000–2005. Yet, Hispanics represented only 5.4 percent of the nonmetro population in 2000. In metro areas, they accounted for 50 percent of the population gain and 47 percent of the natural increase, although they comprised only 14 percent of the metro population. Current trends suggest that the ascendancy of the US Hispanic population is likely to continue unabated, whether restrictive immigration legislation is enacted or not. The growth of the Hispanic population, caused increasingly by natural increase, has taken on a demographic momentum of its own.     

Marriage (Still) Matters: The Contribution of Demographic Change to Trends in Childlessness in the United States

Childlessness in the United States nearly doubled between 1980 and 2000. Other dramatic changes in the U.S. population also took place over this period—notably, women’s average educational attainment increased, and the proportion marrying declined—but the impact of these changes on childlessness has not been formally examined. In this article, I use data from the Current Population Survey Fertility Supplements (1995, 1998, 2004, 2008) and logistic regression and regression-based decomposition techniques to assess the contribution of changes in educational attainment, marriage behavior, and racial/ethnic composition on population levels of childlessness in the United States. Results show that increases in the proportion of women unmarried by age 40 contributed most to the increase in childlessness in the late twentieth century, although these increases were offset somewhat by increased childbearing among unmarried women. The rising proportion of women with a college degree also explained a substantial amount of the increase in childless women.     

Capability Deprivation and Income Poverty in the United States, 1994 and 2004: Measurement Outcomes and Demographic Profiles

Shifting focus from income to capability signifies an important milestone toward accurately measuring poverty and deprivation. This paper operationalizes capability deprivation in the United States and compares measurement outcomes among various capability approaches and between capability and income spaces. Of the three capability approaches examined, the factor score absolute approach suggests a greater extent of deprivation and more comprehensive demographic profiles of the deprived. Additionally, I find that using the capability space may further attenuate the extent of deprivation over that using the income space and alter somewhat the stereotypical profiles of the poor and deprived.     

欧美女性非婚生育现象研究评介及启示

非婚生育是指发生在法定婚姻之外的生育行为。经济及非经济因素共同导致欧美非婚生育在黑人妇女和没有大学文凭的妇女中增加更多;与低收入未婚母亲相比,中产未婚母亲多提前为非婚生育构建了适当支持系统;非婚生育对未婚母亲及儿童福祉可能具有不利影响。鉴于我国学界对日趋普遍之非婚生育现象的重大忽视,希望通过回顾欧美研究成果,促进我国本土研究意识及进展。     

Delayed childbearing in the United States

This article analyzes the phenomenon of delayed childbearing in the United States. It begins by exploring problems associated with the definition and measurement of delayed childbearing. Existing empirical evidence of the phenomenon is reviewed and some new evidence is presented. A general theoretical framework for analyzing delayed childbearing is outlined and discussed in relation to existing theories. The article also provides a critical substantive and methodological review of evidence on the correlates and implications of delayed childbearing. Finally, public and private policy-related aspects of delayed childbearing are considered.     

人口转变论的古典问题和新古典问题

由于已经完成或正在经历人口转变的世界各国在政治、经济、社会各个方面差异性的广泛存在,我们无论是从古典人口转变论那里,还是从新古典人口转变论那里,都不能获得一个理想的理论解释.故此,我们面临着两个选择一是修正和完善人口转变论;二是创立一个全新的理论.本文从古典人口转变论与新古典人口转变论、古典人口转变与现代人口转变两个层面进行比较分析,并将技术和制度两个因素纳入人口转变研究的视野,旨在深化对中国人口转变的认识.     

Homicide trends in the United States

Unlike most other causes of death, homicide has been increasing in the United States, especially since the mid-1960s. Its impact is greatest among nonwhite men. The elimination of homicide would add approximately one and one-half years to their life span. This analysis examines trends and differentials using vital statistics data about homicide victims. A decomposition of components of change reveals that almost all of the rise in homicide mortality among nonwhites and a substantial fraction of the rise among whites results from the increasing use of firearms to kill people.     

Foreign-born professionals in the United States

This paper is an abridged version of a longer study by the same name published by the Center for Immigration Studies, 1815 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006.     

Nondrinker Mortality Risk in the United States

The literature has shown that people who do not drink alcohol are at greater risk for death than light to moderate drinkers, yet the reasons for this remain largely unexplained. We examine whether variation in people’s reasons for nondrinking explains the increased mortality. Our data come from the 1988–2006 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File (N = 41,076 individuals age 21 and above, of whom 10,421 died over the follow-up period). The results indicate that nondrinkers include several different groups that have unique mortality risks. Among abstainers and light drinkers the risk of mortality is the same as light drinkers for a subgroup who report that they do not drink because of their family upbringing, and moral/religious reasons. In contrast, the risk of mortality is higher than light drinkers for former drinkers who cite health problems or who report problematic drinking behaviors. Our findings address a notable gap in the literature and may inform social policies to reduce or prevent alcohol abuse, increase health, and lengthen life.     

Multidimensional Racial Inequality in the United States

This paper measures racial inequalities in the US using a multidimensional ‘wellbeing’ approach that simultaneously considers the distributions of income, health and education. The primary objective is to examine trends in US wellbeing inequality with an emphasis on changes in racial composition. Data is taken from 1990 to 2007 and we observe increases in income inequality, a decline in education inequality and unchanged health inequality over the period. Taken together, these results show a slight increase in the dispersion in multidimensional wellbeing. Stratifying by racial groups shows that this increase is due to widening intra-racial inequalities while inter-racial differences remained unchanged. The method is also used to evaluate wellbeing across groups and we estimate black wellbeing to average around 76 % of whites, while persons from other races average approximately 93 %. Some other changes in composition occur through time and the results are shown to be robust to a number of changes in parametric weightings.     

Estimating Smoking-Attributable Mortality in the United States

Tobacco use is the largest single cause of premature death in the developed world. Two methods of estimating the number of deaths attributable to smoking use mortality from lung cancer as an indicator of the damage from smoking. We re-estimate the coefficients of one of these, the Preston/Glei/Wilmoth model, using recent data from U.S. states. We calculate smoking-attributable fractions for the 50 states and the United States as a whole in 2004, and estimate the contribution of smoking to the high adult mortality of the southern states. We estimate that 21% of deaths among men and 17% among women were attributable to smoking in 2004. Across states, attributable fractions range from 11% to 30% among men and from 7% to 23% among women. Smoking-related mortality also explains as much as 60% of the mortality disadvantage of southern states compared with other regions. At the national level, our estimates are in close agreement with those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Preston/Glei/Wilmoth, particularly for men, although we find greater variability by state than does CDC. We suggest that our coefficients are suitable for calculating smoking-attributable mortality in contexts with relatively mature epidemics of cigarette smoking.     

Forecasts of population in the United States

In this paper the author discusses the work of the Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, which is concerned with forecasting populations. He traces the development of these activities and considers some of the actual forecasts that have been made.