Fertility norms in USA

This page gives information of type fertility norms about the country USA.
See all pages giving information on fertility norms for particular countries|See all pages giving information about USA

Ideal family size

The data on ideal family size here is from the Gallup poll on ideal family size, first administered in 1936. The poll was administered after variable intervals (with the interval between successive administrations ranging from 1 to 5 years). Data are described on the Gallup website here and the full data can be downloaded here.

Full distribution

Year	0 children	1 child	2 children	3 children	4 children	5 children	6 or more children	No opinion	Mean	0-2 children	3 or more children
1936	0	0.02	0.32	0.32	0.22	0.07	0.03	0	3.6	0.34	0.64
1941	0	0.01	0.31	0.27	0.27	0.06	0.08	0	3.3	0.32	0.68
1945	0	0.01	0.22	0.28	0.31	0.09	0.09	0	3.3	0.23	0.77
1947	0	0.01	0.26	0.26	0.29	0.12	0	0.06	3.4	0.27	0.67
1953	0	0.01	0.28	0.3	0.29	0.07	0.05	0	3.3	0.29	0.71
1957	0.01	0.01	0.18	0.34	0.27	0.06	0.04	0.09	3.6	0.2	0.71
1962	0	0.01	0.16	0.24	0.33	0.06	0.07	0.13	3.3	0.17	0.7
1965	0	0.01	0.18	0.28	0.29	0.05	0.03	0.16	3.4	0.19	0.65
1966	0	0.01	0.18	0.27	0.27	0.04	0.03	0.2	3.3	0.19	0.61
1967	0	0	0.23	0.3	0.31	0.05	0.04	0.07	3.4	0.23	0.7
1971	0	0.01	0.38	0.28	0.19	0.03	0.02	0.1	2.9	0.39	0.52
1973	0.01	0.01	0.46	0.23	0.14	0.03	0.03	0.09	2.8	0.48	0.43
1974	0.01	0.02	0.46	0.22	0.14	0.02	0.03	0.1	2.8	0.49	0.41
1977	0.02	0.02	0.5	0.22	0.1	0.02	0.02	0.1	2.6	0.54	0.36
1978	0.02	0.02	0.49	0.23	0.13	0.02	0.01	0.08	2.6	0.53	0.39
1980	0.01	0.03	0.51	0.21	0.12	0.02	0.02	0.08	2.7	0.55	0.37
1980	0.03	0.02	0.55	0.2	0.09	0.01	0.02	0.08	2.5	0.6	0.32
1983	0.03	0.03	0.54	0.21	0.11	0.01	0.02	0.05	2.6	0.6	0.35
1985	0.02	0.04	0.56	0.21	0.08	0.01	0.02	0.06	2.5	0.62	0.32
1986	0.02	0.05	0.59	0.17	0.11	0	0	0.06	2.5	0.66	0.28
1987	0.01	0.03	0.56	0.22	0.09	0.02	0.01	0.06	2.6	0.6	0.34
1990	0.03	0.03	0.57	0.18	0.08	0.03	0	0.08	2.4	0.63	0.29
1996	0.02	0.03	0.57	0.21	0.07	0.04	0	0.06	2.4	0.62	0.32
1997	0.02	0.02	0.46	0.29	0.09	0.02	0.02	0.08	2.6	0.5	0.42
2001	0.01	0.02	0.49	0.27	0.09	0.01	0.01	0.11	2.6	0.52	0.38
2003	0.01	0.02	0.52	0.26	0.09	0.01	0.01	0.08	2.5	0.55	0.37
2004	0.01	0.03	0.49	0.26	0.09	0.01	0.02	0.09	2.6	0.53	0.38
2007	0.01	0.03	0.52	0.25	0.07	0.01	0.01	0.09	2.5	0.56	0.34
2011	0.01	0.04	0.53	0.23	0.08	0.01	0.01	0.09	2.5	0.58	0.33

In comparison with total fertility rate

Year	Ideal family size (mean of distribution)	Total fertility rate (TFR)	Gap (ideal - TFR)
1933		2.012
1934		2.072
1935		2.038
1936	3.6	2.007	1.593
1937		2.038
1938		2.092
1939		2.05
1940		2.113
1941	3.3	2.226	1.074
1942		2.465
1943		2.566
1944		2.439
1945	3.3	2.38	0.92
1946		2.83
1947	3.4	3.161
1948		3.009
1949		3.022
1950		3.02
1951		3.203
1952		3.302
1953	3.3	3.372	-0.072
1954		3.494
1955		3.538
1956		3.654
1957	3.6	3.738	-0.138
1958		3.689
1959		3.689
1960		3.667
1961		3.626
1962	3.3	3.481	-0.181
1963		3.354
1964		3.222
1965	3.4	2.926	0.474
1966		2.714
1967		2.564
1968		2.467
1969		2.457
1970		2.461
1971	2.9	2.268	0.632
1972		2.008
1973	2.8	1.871	0.929
1974	2.8	1.827	0.973
1975		1.769
1976		1.739
1977	2.6	1.783	0.817
1978	2.6	1.747	0.853
1979		1.795
1980	2.6	1.821	0.779
1981		1.805
1982		1.814
1983	2.6	1.783	0.817
1984		1.792
1985	2.5	1.835	0.665
1986	2.5	1.835	0.665
1987	2.6	1.865	0.735
1988		1.922
1989		1.999
1990	2.4	2.069	0.331
1991		2.058
1992		2.043
1993		2.019
1994		2.003
1995		1.982
1996	2.4	1.98	0.42
1997	2.6	1.974	0.626
1998		2.003
1999		2.009
2000		2.054
2001	2.6	2.031	0.569
2002		2.024
2003	2.5	2.053	0.447
2004	2.6	2.058	0.542
2005		2.061
2006		2.112
2007	2.5	2.122	0.378
2008		2.074
2009		2.002
2010		1.928
2011	2.5