Number of Children Ever Born to Females Aged 40-44, 1980-2024

Abstract

Measures of recent childbearing provide important information about current fertility patterns but do not necessarily reflect the number of children females ultimately have. Changes in the timing of births can affect period fertility measures even when completed family size changes relatively little. Examining the number of children ever born to females nearing the end of their reproductive years provides a longer-term perspective on changes in fertility and family size. In this profile, we use data from the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) biennial June Fertility Supplement for the years 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2024 to analyze completed fertility at the end of females’ reproductive years. We excluded 2020 because of the pandemic and instead focused on the most recent data period. We present trends in the distribution of children ever born (one, two, three, or four or more) for females aged 40-44 for the overall population and by race and Hispanic ethnicity and educational attainment. This is an update of previous Family Profiles FP-23-29 (Guzzo & Loo, 2023) and FP-20-04 (Guzzo & Schweizer, 2020).