Volume 49 - Article 29 | Pages 769–782  

Ultra-Orthodox fertility and marriage in the United States: Evidence from the American Community Survey

By Lyman Stone

Abstract

Background: Amid low fertility rates in the industrialized world, some subpopulations have maintained high fertility rates. However, it has often been difficult to study these populations due to limitations in extant data sources.

Objective: This paper will demonstrate a method of measuring key demographic indicators for Ultra-Orthodox Jews using demographic and language variables in the American Community Survey (ACS).

Methods: Comparison of estimates of total fertility rates derived from ACS estimates of Yiddish and Hebrew speakers to related indicators from small surveys of American Jewish populations and data on same-sect fertility in Israel and the United Kingdom validates the use of Yiddish to identify Ultra-Orthodox Jewish respondents in the ACS.

Results: ACS-derived demographic estimates for Yiddish speakers closely approximate estimates derived for Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities using other methods. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in America have high fertility but very low rates of teen fertility and marriage, and fairly egalitarian marriage ages. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fertility is high but not necessarily uncontrolled.

Conclusions: ACS language data can be used to study relatively small subpopulations with unique demographic characteristics.

Contribution: Researchers can use ACS language data to study other demographically unique subpopulations or to study Ultra-Orthodox Jews in more detail than was previously possible.

Author’s Affiliation

• Lyman Stone - McGill University, Canada EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women
Volume 52 - Article 24    | Keywords: contraception, education, fertility, GGS, life course, LISS, microsimulation, Netherlands, physiology, unions

Tempo effects in period TFR: Inspecting the role of shape and scale variations in a cohort model
Volume 52 - Article 19    | Keywords: scale, shape, skew-normal distribution, tempo distortion, total fertility rate (TFR)

Job creation, job destruction, and fertility in Germany
Volume 52 - Article 13    | Keywords: fertility, gender, Germany, job creation, job destruction, labor market, spatial modelling, unemployment

The changing inter-relationship between partnership dynamics and fertility trends in Europe and the United States: A review
Volume 52 - Article 7    | Keywords: childbearing, Europe, family complexity, fertility, fertility, marriage, partnership, United States of America

Educational trends in cohort fertility by birth order: A comparison of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
Volume 51 - Article 36    | Keywords: birth order, cohort analysis, cross-national study, England, family size, fertility, Northern Ireland, parity, Scotland, Wales