The impact of education on fertility in the U.S. over five decades

Writing in Socius, Faculty Associate Philip Cohen and colleague Ansgar Hudde, University of Cologne, analyzed a visualization using data from the General Social Survey to explore the association between fertility and education levels across five decades in the U.S. The data show that women with more education have fewer children than men, a trend that has "become less steep across cohorts as the gap between people with medium and high levels of education has narrowed." While the educational gradient in fertility remains, its impact on overall fertility has diminished as educational attainment has increased and the share of less educated individuals has decreased.

The article highlights that those without a high school diploma consistently have the highest fertility rates but their proportion of the population is shrinking. Higher education is linked to later family formation and fewer children, with the complexity of unintended pregnancies also influencing these patterns.

Cohen and Hudde write that men’s fertility patterns are less clear due to less comprehensive data, but Nordic studies suggest that higher education is associated with increased male fertility, unlike in the U.S. where higher education for women has been tied to lower fertility, though this gap is narrowing.

They conclude by reiterating that the educational gradient in fertility persists, however, its effect on overall fertility levels has weakened over time.