SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND CHANGING FERTILITY OF THE FARM POPULATION.

Relatively large rural-urban differences persisted in the United States in 1960 despite the well-documented narrowing of many of the usual fertility differentials. Higher rural-farm than urban fertility levels were found for all age groups of married women in all census divisions, as measured by the number of children ever-born per 1,000 married women aged 15 to 45. Nine independent variables were successful in explaining a substantial proportion of the variation in rural-farm fertility levels of whites and nonwhites. Location of the farm population with respect to metropolitan area was the most useful "explanatory" variable in most of the analyses. It is suggested that rural-urban fertility differences will continue to diminish as the two sectors become even less differentiated. The apparent strength of the fertility differential in 1960, it is contended, is related to the farm family structure which is not yet obsolete in a large sector of American agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]