Thinking about change in illegitimacy ratios: United States, 1963-1983
Smith, H.L.; Cutright, P.
Demography 25(2): 235-247
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0070-3370 PMID: 3396749 DOI: 10.2307/2061291Document Number: 354262
What has been the recent trend in illegitimacy in the United States? The answer depends on what is being measured. If the focus is on illegitimacy rates, then the trend is mixed. Illegitimacy ratios, however, have been skyrocketing. We show that this is primarily the result of declining nuptiality (and rising marital dissolution) and secondarily the result of decreases in marital fertility. We argue that the illegitimacy ratio is the better index of the social consequences of out-of-wedlock childbearing and that the high ratios of recent decades are unlikely to abate in the foreseeable future.