Unmarried Couples

United States, 1982

Statistics based on data collected in 1982

are presented on dating, the timing of first

sexual intercourse and marriage, current

marital status, number of marriages,

informal marriage, frequency of sexual

intercourse, marital dissolution, and

remarriage. Statistics are shown for

women 15–44 years of age, according to

race, age, and selected socioeconomic

characteristics.

Data From the National Survey of

Family Growth

Series 23, No. 15

DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 87–1 991

U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services

Public Health Service

National Center for Health Statistics

Hyattsville, Maryland

July 1987
All material appearing in this report IS In the public domain and may

be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source,

however, is appreciated.

Suggested citation

National Center for Health Stattstlcs, C. A, Bachrach and M. C. Horn:

Married and Unmarried Couples, United States, 1982. Vita/ arrd /-/es/th

Statistics. Series 23, No. 15. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 87–1991, Public

Health Service. Washington. U.S. Government Printing Office, July

1987.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bachrach, Christine.

Married and unmarried couples, United States, 1982

(Series 23, Data from the National Survey of Family

Growth ; no. 15} (DHHS publication ; no, (PHS) 87–1991 )

Written by Christine A. Bachrach and Marjorie C. Horn.

Blbllography: p.

Supt. of Dots. no.: E20.6209:23/l 5

1. Marriage—United States—Statistics. 2. Women—

United States—Sexual behavior—Statlstlcs, 3. Unmarried couples—United States—Statistics. 4. Single

people—United States—Statistics. 5, United States—

Statlstlcs, Vital. 1. Horn, Marjorie C. Il. National

Center for Health Statistics (U. S.) Ill. Series: Vital

and health statistics. Series 23, Data from the National

Survey of Family Growth ; no. 15. IV, Series: DHHS

publication ; no. (PHS) 87–1 991. [DNLM: 1. Marriage—

United States—statistics, 2. Sex 8ehavior—United

States—statistics. 3. Single Person—United States—

statistics. 4, Women—United States—statistics,

W2AN148w no. 15]

HB1 125, B33 1987 306.8’1 ‘0973 87-600097

ISBN O–8406–0372–X

l?or sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. (loyernment Printing (Mce, ‘iVashington, D.C, 20-402
National Center for Health Statistics

Manning Feinleib, M.D., Dr. P. H., Director

Robert A. Israel, Deputy Director

Jacob J. Feldman, Ph. D., Associate Director for Analysis

and Epidemiology

Gail Fisher, Ph. D., Associate Director for Planning and

Extramural Programs

Peter L. Hurley, Associate Director for Vital and Health

Statistics Systems

Stephen E. Nieberding, Associate Director for Management

George A. Schnack, Associate Director for Data Processing

and Services

Monroe G. Sirken, Ph.D., Associate Director for Research

and Methodology

Sandra S. Smith, Information O@cer

Division of Vital Statistics

John E. Patterson, Director

James A. Weed, Ph. D., Deputy Director

William F. Pratt, Ph. D., Chiej Family Growth Survey

Branch

Mabel G. Smith, ChieJ Statistical Resources Branch

Joseph D. Farrell, Chief Systems and Programming Branch
Cooperating agencies

Cycle III of the National Survey of Family Growth was

supported in part by the National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development, National Institutes of Health, and the

Office of Population Affairs, Oflice of the Assistant Secretary

of Health. Both of these agencies also participated in the questionnaire and survey design.

.

Ill
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. s......

Summary ofprincipal findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Source ofdata andmethodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related sources ofdata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Beginning sexual activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Firstmarriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -- . . . . . . . . . . . .- . . - . . . . . . . . -. . . . .

Currentmarital status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Informal mamiage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Frequency ofsexual intercourse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Marital dissolution and remarriage.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . . . . - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

List ofdetailedtables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . .

Appendixes

I. Technical notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-

11. Definitions ofterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

List of text figures

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Percentofwomen 15–44yearsofage who everhadsexual intercourse, byage and race: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . .

Percent ofevermarned women 15–44years ofagewho first had sexual intercourse before marriage, by age United

States, 1982 . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent ofevermarried women 15-44 years ofagewhosefirst marriage dissolved within 5years, by yearoffirstmarriage:United States, 1982... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percentdistnbution ofwomen15-44years ofageby mtitalstatus, accordingtoracti United States, 1982..... . . . . .

Medianageofbride at firstmarnage: Marriage-registration area, 1963-82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rate ofdivorces and annulmentsperl,OOO marriedwomen 15years ofageorover: United States, 1960-82.. . . . . . . .

Percent distribution ofdissolved first marriages ofwomen15–44 years ofage bytype ofdissolution, according torace:

United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rateofremarnagesper l,OOOwidowed ordivorcedwomen25–44yearsofage: Marriage-registiationarea,1963-82 . . .

1

2

5

7

8

8

8

10

12

14

15

16

19

21

46

51

2

3

3

3

11

14

17

17

List of text tables

A. Numberofwomen whofirsthadintercourse duringtheyears 1965-79,andmean age attirstintercourse, byyearoffirst

intercourse and race: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

B. Numberofwomen 18–44yearsof age and percent whofirsthadsexual intercourse by age 18 years, byeducational attainment, race, and Hispanic origim United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

C. Number ofwomen 15–44yearsofage andmean numbers ofchildrenever born, births inthe5 years before interview,

and additional chlldrenexpected, by current marital status: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

v
D. Number of women 20–44 years of age and percent who first married by age 20 years, by educational attainment, race,

and Hispanic origin: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

E. Number of women 15–44 years of age who ever had sexual intercourse, percent who had intercourse in the last 3 months,

and percent distribution of women who had intercourse in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual intercourse, according

tomarital status, race, andage United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

. . .

.,.

0.0

z

*

#

Symbols

Data not available

Categoy not applicable

Quantity zero

Quantity more than zero but less than

0.05

Quantity more than zero but less than

500 where numbers are rounded to

thousands

Figure does not meet standard of

reliability or precision

Figure suppressed to comply with

confidentiality requirements

vi
Married and

Unmarried Couples

by Christine A. Bachrach, Ph. D., and Marjorie C.

Horn, Ph. D., Division of Vital Statistics

Introduction

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) is conducted periodically by the National Center for Health Statistics, with a national sample of women 15-44 years of age. Previous cycles of the survey were conducted in 1973 (Cycle I)

and 1976 (Cycle II). The present report is based on Cycle III,

which was conducted in 1982. Cycle III was the first survey to

represent women aged 1544 years, regardless of marital

status. Previous cycles represented never married women only

if they had children of their own living with them in the

household.

The survey is designed to produce national estimates of

statistics on fertility, family planning, and maternal and child

health. One of the main purposes of the survey is to fimish

information on the “intermediate variables” that determine the

birth rate in the United States by influencing women’s exposure

to the risk of pregnancy. 12J This report presents statistics

relating to one important set of these intermediate variables—

the formation and dissolution of marriages and other sexual

unions—for women aged 1544 years in 1982.

Information on marital patterns and levels of sexual activity

is important to the understanding of fertility. Of course, the

relationship of sexual activity to fertility is often tempered by

such factors as contraceptive practice and sterility or subfecunditfi nevertheless, identifying the sexually active population is

an important first step in studying fertility. Marriage and

marital dissolution are important determinants of fertility in the

United States because virtually all married couples are sexually active and most want to have children.

Patterns of marriage, marital dissolution, and sexual activity

also affect family life in the United States. During the 1960’s

and 1970’s, divorce rates in the United States rose sharply.3

During the 1970’s, the age at which women first married also

increased and the rate of remarriage for divorced and widowed

women 25-44 years of age declined.4’5 These trends, taken

together, imply a decline in the proportion of the lifetimes of

American women that is spent as part of a married couple.

This has implications for the economic well-being of the

women and their children,b as well as for the family experiences

of children who are growing up. One researcher has predicted

that 70 percent of white children and 94 percent of black

children born in 1980 will spend some part of their childhood

in a one-parent family.’

The trend of later marriage is paralleled by other trends

affecting American family life. According to estimates from the

U.S. Bureau of the Census, the number of unmarried couples

living together in the same household more than tripled between 1970 and 1983.8 For those who are unmarried, then,

informal marriage appears to have become an increasingly

common choice. In recent decades, the proportion of all births

to unmarried women has also increased dramatically-from 1

in 20 in 1960 to 1 in 5 in 1983.9J0 This suggests that as marital

patterns have changed over the past decades so may the

relationship between marriage and women’s exposure to the

risks of pregnancy and childbearing.

This report presents final data from the National Survey of

Family Growth, Cycle III, on a variety of topics related to

exposure to sexual intercourse both withii and outside of

marriage. These include the timing of fwst date, first sexual

intercourse, and first marriage the proportions of women who

have ever had sexual intercourse and the frequency of intercourse in a recent pent@ current marital status and number of

marriages; unmarried cohabitation; and marital dissolution and

remarriage. Preliminary data on some of these topics were

published in Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics. 11Data in this report supercede those published in the preliminary reports.
Summary of principal

findings

The great majority of women of childbearing age have

been exposed to the risk of pregnancy. In 1982, 86 percent of

women 15-44 years of age and ahnost all women aged 25

years or older had ever had sexual intercourse (figure 1). Most

women begin having sexual intercourse before marriage. Nearly

7 out of every 10 ever married women had begun their sexual

experience before they married for the first time. About 6 out

of 10 never married women had begun having intercourse by

the time of the 1982 interview.

100

90

80

70

60

z

m

2 5(3

1’

40

30

20

10

0

~ 15-19 years ~ 25-29 ,..s,s

❑ 20-24 ,,.s,s ❑ 30-44 ,.,,s

99 99

All races’ White Black

Race

llncludes white, black, and other races.

Figure 1. Percent of women 15-44 years of age who ever had

sexual intercourse, by age and race: United States, 1982

About 65 percent of women aged 15-44 years in 1982 had

ever married. Slightly over one-half (52 percent) were currently

married, 12 percent were formerly married, and 35 percent had

never married. About 6 percent of women who were not

currently married in 1982 were informally marriecl or living

with a partner. Nearly one-third of ever married women had

experienced the dissolution of their frst marriage; and of those

who had been divorced or widowed, three-fifths had remarried

by the time of the survey.

The results shown in this report reveal sharp differences in

the patterns of sexual intercourse and marriage across age

groups, suggesting changes over recent decades in the timing

and duration of marriage and in the extent to which sexual

activity begins before marriage. Women in their early twenties

(ages 20-24 years) began having intercourse earlier and married

later (figure 2) than women in the latter half of their reproductive years (ages 3&44 years). Although fmt intercourse occurred

before marriage for over one-half of ever married women in

even the oldest age group (ages 40-44 years), premarital intercourse increasingly has become the rule in the younger age

groups. Among ever married women aged 15–24 years, 83 percent began their sexual activity before they were married

(figure 2).

The data also suggest a decline in the amount of time that

women of reproductive age spend as part of a married couple.

Younger women have been marrying at later ages than older

women of reproductive age did, and women who first married

in the 1970’s have experienced the dissolution of their marriages

sooner than those who married in the 1960’s (figure 3). There

is also some evidence that remarriage is less common hong

women whose first marriages dissolved in the 1970’s than

among those whose marriages dissolved in the 1960’s.

Despite these changes, most American women of childbearing age have continued to marry at some time, and marriage

continues to be an important determinant of fertility. All but 5

percent of women 40-44 years of age in 1982 had man-ie~ and

the percent ever married increases sharply, from 7 percent

among women aged 15–1 9 years to 45 percent among women

20-24 years to 76 percent among women aged 25–29 years.

Marriage remains strongly associated with the exposure to the

risk of pregnancy Compared with unmarried women, currently

married women were more likely to have had intercourse in the

3 months before the NSFG interview and more likely to have

had intercourse frequently during that period.

Patterns of marriage and first sexual intercourse differ sub

stantially by race. Black women began dating at later ages than

2
90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

83

79

71

61

53

15-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44

years years years years years

Age

Figure 2. Percent of ever married women 15-44 years of age who

first hed sexual intercourse before marriage, by age: United Statas,

1982

22

20

::::::::::

::::::::::

6

b

::::

::::

::::.

::::: 11

:::::

.:.:.:O:>:

.....

~.: :.:.:.:.:.

:3 .:::::::::

:.:.: :::::::::

:~; :::::::::

::::: .........

:::::::::

::::: :::::::::

.....

::::::::: ‘:x

:::::::::

....

:.:. :.:.:.:.:

1975-79 1970-74 1965-69 1960-64

Year of marriage

Figure 3. Percent of ever married women 15-44 years of age

whose first merriaga dissolvad within 5 years, by yaar of first

marriage: United States, 1982

white women, but they were more likely tohave begun having

sexual intercourse by ages 15–24 years (figure 1). Over91 percent of ever married black women aged 15-44 years had had

intercourse by the time they married, compared with 67 percent of ever married white women. Black women spent fewer of

their reproductive years as part of a married couple than white

women. They married at later ages, and they were more likely

to have never married (figure 4). The first marriages of black

women were more likely than those of white women to dissolve, and they were more likely to end in separation rather

than in divorce. Once divorced or widowed, black women were

less likely than comparable white women to remarry. These

dfierences in marital patterns between black and white women

are reflected in the much higher proportion of births to black

women that occur outside of marriage.’0

The results in this report also reveal other differences

among population groups with respect to patterns of marriage

and first intercourse. Women who attended college and women

whose parents attended college were likely to begin having

intercourse later and to marry later, compared with women

White

Never married

Black

Figure 4. Percant distribution of women 15-44 years of age by

marital status, according to race: United States, 1982

3
who did not complete high school and those whose parents did

not complete high school. Once married, college-educated

women were less likely to experience marital dissolution.

Patterns of first intercourse and marriage also were associated with another aspect of family background—whether or not

the woman was still living with both her parents when she was

14 years of age. Women who were living with neither or only

one parent at age 14 years had experienced disruption in their

family while they were growing up, most commonly because of

the divorce of their parents. Such women were more likely than

women who were Iiving with both parents at age 14 years to

begin dating, to begin having intercourse, and to marry at early

ages. Once married, they were more likely to experience

separation or divorce.

Other factors affecting marriage and the timing of first

intercourse include religious atHiation and region of residence.

Protestant women aged 15-44 years began having intercourse

and marrying at earlier ages than Catholic women, but they

were not significantly more likely to have intercourse before

marriage. Women living in the Northeast in 1982 were likely

to have begun dating earlier, and having intercourse later than

women in most other regions of the country; and they also

married at later ages. Women living in the West were more

likely to experience the dissolution of their first marriages and

tended to be more likely to remarry than women in other

regions.

Poverty was strongly associated with marital status among

women of childbearing age in 1982. Women whose family

incomes were less than 1?4 times the poverty level were only

about one-half as likely to be currently married as women with

incomes three times the poverty level or more. Being informally married was also more common among women with

family incomes well above the poverty level. These relationships

reflect in part the greater family resources, in the form of the

number of potential wage earners, available to currently or

informally married women, compared with women who do not

share their households with a spouse or partner.

4
Source of data and

methodology

The National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle III, was

based on interviews with a probability sample of 7,969 women

15-44 years of age living in households or group quarters in the

conterminous United States. The interviews were conducted

during the period August 1982–Febmary 1983 by trained

female interviewers. The interviews averaged 1 hour in length

and focused on topics related to each woman’s pregnancies and

births, to the use of methods to delay or prevent pregnancy, to

marriages, to current ability to become pregnant, and to expectations for future births. The sample design, data collection,

and data processing for the survey were carried out by Westat,

Inc., under a contract with the National Center for Health

Statistics.

The statistics in this report are estimates for the national

population represented by the NSFG sample, that is, women

15=14 years of age in the noninstitutional population of the

conterminous United States. These estimates are based on a

sample and may therefore differ somewhat from the true population values because of sampling error. The sample design

and the procedures for estimating standard errors that measure

sampling error are described in appendix I. Procedures for

determining whether differences between estimates are “statistically signiilcant’’-that is, whether they are likely to reflect a

real difference in population values or arise out of chance or

sampling error-are also described. In this report, differences

are discussed without qualification if their estimated probability of arising by chance, if no difference actually existed in

the population, was 5 percent or less. Statements about differences that are qualified by the use of phrases such as “tend

to” or “the data suggest” indicate differences that are significant at the 10-percent level but not at the 5-percent level.

Appendix I also includes a discussion of nonsampling error

that may aiTect the estimates presented and a discussion of the

various procedures that were employed to minimize nonsampling error.

This report presents most findings by means of two different types of tables: tables showing simple percents or percent distributions and tables showing cumulative percents.

Simple percents or percent distributions are generally used in

the report to show the current status of women in the population, for example, the percent distribution by current marital

status or the percent who are living with a partner in an

informal marriage. Cumulative percents are used to show the

timing of events that occurred in the past, for example, the

cumulative percent of women who married by a given age.

Cumulative percents of women experiencing any event

beyond the 15th birthday are incompletely estimated by the

data. For example, the percent of women marrying by age 18

years is estimated at 11 percent for women 15–44 years.

However, by the time women who were 15–17 years of age at

the time of the survey reach their 18th birthday, some of them

will have married and the true percent marrying will be higher.

This report has adopted two approaches to overcome this problem. First, in tables showing cumulative percents by age

groups, estimates relating to age groups containing women who

have not yet reached the referent birthday are italicized to signal that they are likely to underestimate the final experience for

that age group. Statistics for which none of the women in the

age group have completed exposure, for example the percent of

women aged 15–1 9 years who married by age 20 years, are not

shown in the tables. These conventions are followed only when

specitlc age groups (or marriage or marriage dissolution cohorts)

are being examined. When the timing of events for all women

regardless of age or for groups other than age groups is

examined, the percent experiencing the event by specific ages

is shown even though some women in each category have not

attained that age.

Second, in some cases special tables are presented that are

limited to women who have attained the referent birthday. For

example, one table shows the percent of women aged 1844

years who first had sexual intercourse by age 18 years. This

approach is taken when it helps to clarify the relationship between the timing of an event and another important variable.

Throughout this report, data on the timing and prevalence

of events relating to marital status and sexual activity are

shown in relation to age, race, and Hispanic origin, as well as a

large number of other background characteristics related to

family formation. These latter characteristics include living

arrangements at age 14 years, the education of the woman’s

parents and her own education, religion, labor force status, and

the region in which she currently resides. Living arrangements

at age 14 years measures whether the woman’s parents’ marriage remained intact throughout her childhood (living with

both parents) or whether it was disrupted for some reason (living

with one or neither parent). The education of the woman’s parents is an indicator of the socioeconomic status of the family in

which the woman was raised, and her own education is a current

measure of socioeconomic status. However, own education

may not be indicative of socioeconomic status for young

women, particularly those under age 20 years, many of whom

are still attending school. These terms are defined further in

appendu II.

This report presents statistics for women classified by

poverty level income (that is, family income expressed as a

5
percent of the poverty level) only in relation to current marital than women who are not married. Poverty status is not shown in

status and informal marriage. This characteristic is strongly relation to past marital events because such events are more

associated with marital status because women who are for- likely to be the cause of (as in the case of a divorce) rather than

really or informally married are more likely to have two eam- the effect of current poverty status.

ers contributing to the family income and less likely to be poor

6
Related sources of data

Data on marriage and divorce are published annually by

the National Center for Health Statistics in Monthly Vital

Statistics Report, Advance report of final marriage statistics;

Monthly Vital Statistics Report, Advance report of final

divorce statistics; and in Vital Statistics of the United States,

Volume III, Marriage and Divorce. These data are based on

information from two sources: ( 1) complete counts of events

obtained from all States and (2) data on characteristics based

on a sample of marriage and divorce certificates from States

participating in the marriage-registration area and divorceregistration area. Published statistics include annual rates of

marriage, divorce and remarriage, mean and medhn ages of

brides and grooms, and estimates of the numbers of children

involved in divorces.

Data on current marital status of all men and women aged

15 years or over in the United States are collected annually by

the U.S. Bureau of the Census during the March Current Population Survey. These data are published annually in Current

Population Reports. (For example, see reference 8.) In addition, marital history data have been collected at 5-year intervals since 1975 during the June Current Population Survey.

Data collected in 1975 also have been published in Current

Population Reports. (For example, see reference 12.)

Data on the timing of first sexual intercourse were collected

in three surveys of U.S. women aged 15–19 years conducted in

1971, 1976, and 1979 by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.] 3,14The NSFG Cycle III was the fust national survey

to obtain this information for all women of reproductive age.

Finally, a detailed analysis of remarriage among women

whose f~st marriage ended in divorce is presented in a previous

report based on data from the National Survey of Family

Growth, Cycle 11.15These data are not directly comparable to

those presented in this report because the earlier data are based

on computed probabilities of remarriage rather than on cumulative proportions remarrying and because the data in the earlier

report are limited to women whose first marriages ended in

divorce. Nevertheless, findings of both reports are similar with

respect to race differences in remarriage.

7
Dating

Most young people date before beginning sexual activity.

Dating may be an important precursor of sexual activity for

two reasons. First, it may prepare young people for the more

serious and stable heterosexual relationships they will take on

as adults by providing short-term relationships in which roles

may be rehearsed. Second, dating may lead directly to sexual

activity by increasing the opportunities for sexual intercourse.

In the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG),

women aged 15–24 years were asked, “At what age, if ever,

did you first start dating, that is, going out with a boy?”

Women aged 25 years or over were not asked the question

because recall was expected to be more dil%cult for them.

Overall, the vast majority of women 15-24 years of age (94

percent) had begun dating by the time of the survey (table 1).

About one-third had begun to date by age 15 years (31 percent) and nearly seven-eighths by age 17 years (81 percent).

The percent who had begun dating by the survey date was

higher for women 20-24 years of age (98 percent) than for

women 15– 19 years of age (89 percent), as one would expect. One would not expect, however, the marked difference

(table 1) in the percent who dated by age 15 years between

women aged 15– 19 years (37 percent) and women aged 20–24

years (25 percent). This finding could be explained in any of

the following three ways:

Q By a large change in the onset of dating during the years

preceding the survey.

Q By recall error among women 20-24 years of age.

● By the tendency to interpret the meaning of the word “dating” differently in the two age groups.

If dating behavior had, in fact, changed as dramatically over

the years preceding the 1982 survey as suggested in table 1,

other aspects of adolescent sexual behavior, such as the percent having had intercourse, also would be expected to have

changed dramatically. But they have not. 1G Therefore, it is

more likely that the pattern of differences in the initiation of

dating by age (table 1) mainly reflects recall error or differences

in interpretation of terms.

The data in table 1 suggest that white women began dating

earlier than black women. About 32 percent of white women

15–24 years of age, compared with 22 percent of black women

of the same age, began dating by age 15 years. The differences

narrow with increasing age: The difference between the percents of black and white women who had dated by age 18 years

was significant at the 10-percent level only, and there was no

significant difference in the percent of black and white women

who had begun dating by the time of the interview. Differences

by Hispanic origin in timing of fwst date were not statistically

significant.

Few of the background characteristics shown in table 2

were associated with the timing of the first date or the percent

of women who had begun dating by the time of the survey.

Women with fewer than 12 years of education were more likely

than other women to have dated by age 15 years, but they were

less ‘Wely to have dated by the interview date, probably because

they were younger at the time of the survey. Women who had

lived with both parents at age 14 years tended to have dated by

age 15 years less often than women who lived with one or

neither parent. Women living in the Northeast Region were

most likely to have begun dating by age 15, and women living

in the West were least likely to have begun dating by the time

of the survey. These regional differences may reflect differences

in the interpretation of the term “dating” as well as real differences in behavior.

Beginning sexual activity

The onset of sexual activity marks the beginning of a

woman’s exposure to the risk of pregnancy. Studies have shown

that the timing of this event has a strong impact on the woman’s

use of methods to prevent or delay pregnancy and, hence, on

the likelihood of an early or unintended pregnancy .17’18Almost

7 out of 8 women 15–44 years of age had ever had sexual intercourse by the time of the NSFG interview (table 3). This

means that the great majority of women of childbearing age in

1982 had been exposed to the risk of pregnancy. Among

women 15--19 years of age, less than one-half (47 percent) had

begun sexual activity; this proportion increased to 85 percent

among women 2&24 years of age, to 97 percent among women

25–29 years of age, and to about 98 percent among women 30

years of age or over. About 8 percent of women first had sexual

intercourse before reaching their 15th birthday, 40 percent

before age 18 years, and 66 percent before age 20 years.

The timing of f~st intercourse differed substantially between women who were under 30 years of age in 1982 and

those who were 30–44 years of age. For example, the percent

beginning sexual activity before age 15 years was between 3

and 5 percent among women aged 30-44 years and between 9

and 12 percent among women aged 15–29 years (table 3), The

percent who first had intercourse before age 18 years ranged

from 31 to 34 percent among women aged 3044 years, com8
pared with 48 and 47 percent, respectively, among women 20-

24 and 25–29 years of age. Differences by age among women

under 30 years of age and among those 30 years or over tended

to be insignificant.

This suggests that, rather than a smooth trend toward

earlier intercourse over the birth cohorts represented by the

survey, there was a major shift between cohorts aged 25–29

years and cohorts aged 30-34 years at the survey date and that

there were relatively minor changes in earlier and later cohorts.

These findings are consistent with the results of other studies

that show a dramatic increase in the percent of teenage women

who were sexually active during the 1970’s but show a leveling

off in the percent in the most recent years. 16The trend toward

earlier intercourse also is reflected in the change in the mean

age at which women first had intercourse between women who

began sexual activity during the years 1965-69 and those who

began during the years 1975-79. As table A shows, women

having their first intercourse in the later period were on the

average nearly 1 year younger than women having first intercourse in the earlier period.

Black women began having sexual intercourse earlier than

white women. Among women beginning sexual activity during

the years 1965–79, the average age at frost intercourse was

from 1.4 to 1.8 years younger among black women than among

white women (table A). Among all women aged 15-44 years

(table 3), the percent having had intercourse by age 15 years

was nearly 3 times as great for black women as for white

women (17 and 6 percent, respectively); and the percent having

had intercourse by age 18 years was almost two-thirds greater

among black women. At the time of the survey, black women

aged 15–1 9 and 20-24 years were significantly more likely

than white women of similar age to have had intercourse; but

among women aged 25-44 years, white women were just as

likely as black women to have begun having intercourse.

Women who were still living with both parents at age 14

years began their sexual experience later than women who were

not living in an intact family at that age. By age 18 years, for

Table A. Number of women who first had intercourse during the

years 1965-79, and mean age at firat intercourse, by year of first

intercourse and race: Unitad Statea, 1982

[Statiatica are besed on a sample of the household population of the

conterminous United Statea. See appendixes for discussion of the sample

design, estimates of sampling variability, and definkions of terms]

Year of first intercourse

Race 1965-69 1970-74 1975-79

Numbar of women

Allracesl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,283 11,317 10,266

White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,831 9,537 8,484

Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,165 1,492 1,423

Mean age

Allracael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.0 (0.1) 18.6 (0.1) 18.2 (0.1 )

White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.2 (0.2) 18.8 (0.2) 18.3 (0.1 )

Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.7 (0.2) 17.0 (0.1) 16.9 (0.1 )

1Includes white, blsck, and other races.

NOTE Standard errora of means shown in parentheses.

example, 36 percent of the former group and53 percent of the

latter group had begun having intercourse (table 4).

Parental education also was associated closely with the

timing of first intercourse. Women with mothers and fathers

who did not complete high school were more likely to have

begun their sexual experience by each successive birthday than

women with college-educated parents. About 33 percent of

women with college-educated mothers had intercourse by age

18 years, compared with 48 percent of women whose mothers

did not complete high school.

Women who themselves had completed fewer than 12 years

of schcxd at the time of the survey were more likely than women

with more schooling to have begun having intercourse by ages

15 through 18 years, but they were less likely to have had intercourse by the time of the survey (table 4). This pattern results

from the inclusion of teenagers who are still in school in the

lowest category of education. When attention is restricted to

women 18–44 years of age, as in table B, differences by education in the percent of women who began having intercourse by

age 18 years are even sharper. Seventy percent of those who

had completed fewer than 12 years of school had begun sexual

activity by age 18 years, compared with 43 percent of those

who had completed 12 years of school and 27 percent of those

who had completed 13 years or more.

Because the educational levels of racial and ethnic groups

in the United States differ, it is useful to examine the associations

between timing of first intercourse and both race and origin

within categories of education. Educational attainment was

closely associated with the timing of first intercourse among

both black and white women and among both Hispanic and

non-Hispanic women (table B). Within each category of education, black women were more likely than white women to have

had intercourse by age 18 years. Overall, Hispanic and nonHispanic women were equally likely to have had intercourse

by age 18 years. However, among women with fewer than 12

years of school (the largest educational category for Hispanic

women and the smallest for non-Hispanic women), Hispanic

women were less likely to have begun sexual activity by age 18

years. Among more highly educated women, the percents beginniig intercourse by age 18 years were simhr with respect

to origin.

Protestant women began their sexual exposure earlier than

Catholic women, and they were more likely to have had intercourse by the time of the survey. For example, 44 percent of

Protestant women, compared with 33 percent of Catholic women,

began having intercourse by age 18 years (table 4). Women

living in the Northeast were less likely to have begun their

sexual experience before age 18 years than women living in

other regions of the country, and women living in the South

were more likely to have done so. By age 18 years, 29 percent

of Northeastern women had had intercourse, compared with

47 percent of women from the South (table 4). Regional differences in the timing of first intercourse may reflect other differences among the regions, for example, the much higher proportion of Catholic women in the Northeast and the relatively

high proportion of black women in the South. However, the

same pattern of regional diRerences is observed when Catholic,

Protestant, and white women are examined separately, although

the pattern is sharply diminished among black women (data not

9
Table B. Number of women 18-44 years of age and percent who first had sexual intercourse by age 18 years, by educational attainment, race,

and Hispanic origin: United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United Statas, See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, snd definitions of terms]

Race Hispanic origin

Education/ attainment All women~ White Black Hispanic Non-Hispanic

Number of women in thousands

All levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,977 41,248 6,164 3,892 45,084

Less than 12 years,,......,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,534 6,573 1,602 1,825

12yaars ..,,....,,.....,,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6,709

20,077 17,149 2,466 1,157

13years or more .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1[3,920

20,366 17,525 2,096 910 19455

Percent who had intercourse by age 18

All levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.9 37.8 63.8 40.9 40.9

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.4 68.5 82.3 50.0 75.9

12 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.9 39.8 64.1 41.5

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42.9

26.7 24.5 49.2 21.8 26.9

1Includes white, black, and other races.

shown). Differences by region in the percent who had ever had

intercourse by the time of the interview were small and not

statistically significant.

Never married women

Not surprisingly, marital status is a very important determinant of the likelihood of having ever had sexual intercourse.

All of the ever married women had been sexually active at

some time (data not shown), compared with about three-fifths

of never married women. The percent of never married women

who had ever had intercourse generally increased with age,

from 30 percent among never married women aged 15-17

years and 43 percent among women aged 15–19 years to 73

percent among women aged 20-24 years and 86 percent of

women aged 25–34 years (table 5). Among never married

women 35-44 years of age, the percent who had ever had intercourse was only 67 percent. This decline at the oldest age

group was observed for white women but not for black women.

The following two possible factors may contribute to this lower

percent in the oldest age group: (1) Women in this age group

may have been less likely than women in the younger age

groups to have had premarital sex (as shown later), and (2) to the

extent that marriage is selective of women who do become sexually active, women who reach the ages of 35-44 years without

having married may be disproportionately likely to lead sexually inactive lives.

In all other respects, the timing of first sexual intercourse

among never married women (tables 5 and 6) is very similar to

that observed for all women (tables 3 and 4). Never married

women were less likely to have begun having intercourse by all

ages over 18 years, but the pattern of differences by race,

origin, and all characteristics shown in table 6 is the same as

that observed for women of all marital statuses.

First marriage

Although the majority of never married women have had

sexual intercourse at some time, sustained exposure to the risk

of pregnancy begins for many at the time of the first marriage.

First marriage also signals for many the beginning of family

building. About 4 out of 5 births occur to married women, 10

and most births that do not occur to married women are unintended. 19The strong association between marriage and fertility

is shown in table C. Women who had never married had borne,

on the average, far fewer children than ever married women

had, both in their lifetimes (children ever born) and in the most

recent 5 years. Fertility in the most recent 5 years was highest

for currently married women. The mean number of births expected in the future, by contrast, was highest for never married

women, most of whom had not yet begun having chilclren.

In 1982, nearly two-thirds of women 1544 years of age

had ever married: 11 percent had married by age 18 years, 32

percent by age 20 years, and 59 percent by age 25 years (table

7). The percent ever married in 1982 increased with age, from

7 percent among women 15–19 years of age to 45 percent

among women 20-24 years, 76 percent among women 25–29

years, 88 percent among women 30-34 years, and 93 to 95

percent among women 35-44 years.

The data for 5-year age groups show a decline in the pace

of first marriage, particularly among the younger age groups.

Table C. Number of women 15-44 years of age and mean numbers

of children ever born, births in the 5 years before interview, and

additional children expected, by current maritel status:

United States, 1982

[Stat(stlcs are based on a sample of the household populst,on of the

contsrminous Unitsd States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample

des!gn, estimates of sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Current marital status

Never Currently Formerly

Item married married married

Number of women In

thousands ...,,.......,,. . 19,164 28,231 6,704

Mean number of children

ever born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 (.02) 1.89 (.04) 1.96 (.08)

Mean number of births during

5 years before interview. . . . . .11 (.01) .51 (.01) .28 (.02)

Mean number of additional

births intended . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.98 (.03) .60 (.02) .46 (.05)

NOTE: Standard errors of means shown in parentheses.

10
For example, the percent marrying by age 18 years declined

from 14 percent among women 25–29 years of age to 8 percent

among women aged 20-24 years. The percent marrying by age

20 years was 38 among women aged 25–29 years, compared

with 26 among women aged 20-24 years. This decline is consistent with the rapid increase in the median age of bride at first

marriage observed in the marriage-registration area since the

mid-1 970’s (figure 5).

The slowing of the pace of first marriages occurred among

both white women and black women, but it appears to be more

marked among black women. For example, whereas white

women aged 20-24 years were about three-fifths as likely to

22.5

22.0

21.5

0

g

c 21.0 .!Z

-0

2

20.5

20.0

.

.

. lllllli[lllllllllllllllll

u 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985

1963 1982

Year

Figure 5. Median age of bride at first marriage: Marriageregistration area, 1963-82

have married by age 18 years, compared with white women

aged 4044 years, black women aged 20-24 years were only

about one-fifth as likely to have married by that age, compared

with black women aged 40-44 years.

Black women were less likely than white women to have

married by age 18 years or over and were less likely to have

married by the survey date. One out of 3 white women aged 15–

44 years had married by age 20 years, and 2 out of 3 had

married by the time of the survey. By contrast, only 1 out of 5

black women had married by age 20 years and only one-halfby

the survey date. A similar difference by race in the percent

marrying by age 20 years is observed when the comparison is

limited to women aged 20-44 years at the survey (table D).

However, this difference is largest among women who had

completed fewer than 12 years of school (among whom 36 percent of black women and 68 percent of white women had

married by age 20 years), and nonexistent among women who

had completed 13 or more years of school. Many of the women

in the highest category of education were likely to still be attending school at age 20 years. Race differences in fwst marriage

reemerged, but were smaller among women aged 25-44 years

who had completed 13 or more years of school, among whom

61 percent of black women and 70 percent of white women had

married by age 25 years (data not shown).

Differences by Hispanic origin in the timing of frost marriage were not statistically signiilcant (table 7). However, the

data in table D suggest that Hispanic women 20–44 years of

age who had completed 12 years of school were less Iiiely than

comparable non-Hispanic women to have married by age 20

years.

The timing of first marriage varied according to the characteristics of the families in which women grew up (table 8).

Women who still lived with both parents at age 14 years were

less Iiiely than women who lived with one or neither parent to

have married by age 18 years but were more likely to have

married by the swey date. Women whose mother and/or

father completed 13 or more years of school were much less

likely to have married by each birthday shown and by the

Table D. Number of women 20-44 years of age and percent who first married by age 20 years, by educational attainment, race, and Hispanic

origin: United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for diacuasion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Race Hispanic origin

Educational attainment All womenf White Black Hispanic Non-Hispanic

Number of women in thousands

Alilevals ...,...............,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,578 37.552 5,569 3,506 41,072

Lass than 12 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,470 5,780 1,371 1.642

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5,828

17,614 15,039 2,175 994

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16,620

19,494 16,733 2,023 870 18,624

Percent first married by age 20 yeara

Alllevals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.8 38.6 26.5 40.2 36.5

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.4 68.0 35.9 55.2

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63.1

46.4 49.0 28.3 34.4

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47.1

18.6 19.1 18.3 *1 8.6 18.7

1Includes white, black, and other races.

11
survey date, than women whose parents completed less than

12 years of school.

The woman’s own educational attainment also was strongly

associated with the timing of first marriage. Women who completed fewer than 12 years of school were more likely than

women with more education to have married by age 18 years.

Women with fewer than 12 years of school appeared less likely

than women with 12 years of school to marry before the 20th

and later birthdays (table 8), but this pattern reflects the preponderance of women aged 15–19 years in the lowest category

of education. When attention is restricted to women 20-44

years of age, as in table D, the percent mamying by age 20

years is about three times as high for women with fewer than

12 years of school as for women with 13 years of school or

more.

The percent ever married by the time of the survey and by

each birthday shown was lower for Catholic than for Protestant

women and lower for women living in the Northeast than in

other regions. The lower percent married among Catholic women

was observed in each region of the country, and the lower percent married among residents of the Northeast was apparent

within each racial and religious group (data not shown).

Timing of first intercourse in relation

to marriage

It is clear from the findings presented in tables 3–8 that

many women aged 15-44 years in 1982 began their sexual experience before they married for the first time. For example,

although only 11 percent of women had married by age 18

(table 7), 40 percent had had intercourse by that age (table 3).

Three out of 5 never married women had had sexual experience by the time of the NSFG interview (table 5).

Less than one-third of ever married women (31 percent)

delayed their first intercourse until marriage (table 9). About

one-quarter began having intercourse at least 3 years before

they married, one-quarter began 1 or 2 years before marriage,

and one-fifth began less than a year before marriage.

Because these data are limited to ever married women,

they represent only the experience of those women who had

married by the survey date. Statistics for the youngest age

groups are especially affected by this problem because they

refer only to women who marry at an early age. The proportion

who delay sexual intercourse until marriage is likely to be even

lower for women who marry at later ages because these women

will have experienced a longer period of time during which premarital sex could have occurred.

Despite this limitation, the percent of women who delayed

having intercourse until marriage declined dramatically from

the oldest to the youngest age groups. Although differences between adjacent age groups were significant only in the case of

women aged 30-34 and 35–39 years, differences between nonadjacent groups were statistically significant and consistently

indicated a decline. The percent who waited until marriage to

begin intercourse declined from 47 percent among women aged

40-44 years, to 17 percent among women aged 15–24 years.

Compared with older ever married women, those in the

youngest age groups also were likely to have delayed marriage

for a longer period after beginning intercourse. For example,

23 percent of women aged 15–24 years married 3 or 4 years

after their first sexual intercourse, compared with 7 percent of

women aged 40-44 years. This means that younger ever married

women had had a longer period of premarital exposure to the

risk of pregnancy, on the average, than their older counterparts. This lengthening of the period of premarital semal activity reflects not only the earlier age at which women in the

younger age groups first had intercourse (table 3) but also the

older ages at which they married (table 7).

The timing of first sexual intercourse in relation to marriage

differed sharply by race, and somewhat less so by Hispanic

origin. Compared with ever married white women, ever married

black women were less likely to have delayed sexual intercourse until marriage (33 percent of white women compared

with 9 percent of black women) and more likely to have experienced 3 or more years of premarital sexual activity (23 percent of white women compared with 49 percent of black women).

Differences by age in the percent of women who delayed intercourse until marriage generally followed the same pattern among

both black women and white women, but the absolute differences were smaller and in most cases nonsignificant among

black women. The data suggest that Hispanic women may

have been more likely than non-Hispanic women to postpone intercourse until marriage (40 compared with 30 percent,

table 9).

In contrast to the sharp differences by age and race in the

timing of first sexual intercourse and marriage, differences by

the social and economic characteristics shown in table 10 are

relatively small, and few are significant even at the 10-percent

level. This similarity contrasts with the differences (obsemed

in earlier tables) in the proportions who began having intercourse and who married by specific ages, by the same characteristics. These results suggest that although these social characteristics may have a strong effect on the age at which these

important life cycle events occur, they have little effect on the

relative timing of first intercourse and marriage.

Current marital status

Despite the prevalence of premarital sexual intercourse, a

woman’s marital status continues to have an important effect

on her exposure to sexual intercourse, pregnancy, and childbearing. Therefore, the distribution by marital status of women of

childbearing age is a potentially important predictor of fertility

lewels in a population. In this report, marital status refers to the

woman’s formal marital status. Women living with ]men to

whom they are not married are classified according to whether

they have ever been legally married. However, women who are

separated from their husbands are included with divorced and

widowed women in the category “formerly married.” This is

done because the risk of pregnancy and childbearing is lower

for these women than for other currently married women who

are still living with their spouses.

Approximately one-half (52 percent) of women 15-44

years of age were currently married at the time of the NSFG

interview (table 11). About 35 percent had never married and

12 percent were formerly married. Divorced women (8 percent) made up the majority of the formerly married, and separated

12
women (4 percent) were nearly all of the remainder. Widowhood

was rare (less than one percent), reflecting the low death rates

for persons under age 50 years in the United States.

Because the majority of women fust marry in their late

teens and twenties (table 7), it is not surprising that the distribution of women by marital status differs dramatically over

these age groups and varies relatively little among women in

age groups over 30 years. The percent currently married rose

from 6 percent among women aged 15–19 years to 39 percent

among those aged 20-24 years and to 69 percent among those

aged 30-34 years (table 11). Among women aged 40-44

years, 75 percent of women were currently married. Never

married women were a vast majority among women aged 15–

19 years (93 percent). By ages 20–24 years, however, they

constituted only 55 percent of all womerq by ages 30-34 years,

only 12 percent and by ages 40-44 years, 5 percent. The percents of women who were formerly married (and within that

category, divorced) rose from age 15-19 to age 3&34. Less

than 1 percent of women aged 15–19 years were formerly

married, compared with 19 percent of women aged 30–34 years

and 20 percent of women aged 40-44 years.

Black and white women differed sharply by marital status.

Black women 15-44 years of age were much more likely than

white women to have never married(51 percent compared with

33 percent) or to have been formerly married (19 compared

with 12 percent), and they were much less likely to be currently

married (31 compared with 56 percent). Although similar percents of black and white women were divorced (8 percent),

black women were three times as likely to be separated (10

compared with 3 percent). Separation accounted for over onehalf of all formerly married black women, compared with only

about one-quarter of all formerly married white women. The

differences by race in the percents never married reflect the

lower rates of first marriage observed among black women

(table 7). Differences in the percents formerly married and

separated suggest that when black women do marry, they are

less likely than white women to remain married and less likely

than white women to end their marriages in divorce.

The distribution by marital status also differed according

to most of the social characteristics shown in table 12. Many of

these differences reflect differences in the rate of first marriages

observed previously in table 8. Women who lived with both

parents at age 14 years were more likely than women who lived

with neither or only one parent to be currently married at the

survey date. The percents currently married and formerly married

were lowest among women whose mothers completed 13 years

of school or more and highest among women whose mothers

completed fewer than 12 years. Father’s education was related

to marital status in the same way. The relationship between

marital status and the woman’s own educational attainment is

confounded by the concentration of young women in the lowest

educational category. If this category is disregarded, women

with higher levels of educational attainment ( 13 years or more)

were less likely to be currently married and more likely to be

never married than women with lower levels (12 years).

The distribution by marital status differed sharply by level

of family income. Women with family incomes of less than 150

percent of the poverty level were less likely than women with

higher income levels to be currently married and more likely to

be never or formerly married. These differences may reflect the

effect of marriage on economic resources as well as the effect

of economic resources on marriage. Currently married women

are more likely than unrnarned women to belong to two-earner

households and to households containing male earners (who

earn more, on the average, than female earners) and, hence,

are less likely to be poor. Only 16 percent of currently married

women had incomes of less than 150 percent of the poverty

level, compared with 34 percent of never married women and

41 percent of formerly married women (data not shown).

With respect to religious affiliation, Catholic women were

less likely than Protestant women to be currently married and

more likely to be never married. Women living in the Northeast

were more likely than women living in other regions to have

never married, less likely than women living in the Midwest

and South to be currently married, and less likely than women

living in the West to be formerly married. Women living in the

West were more likely than those in the South and Northeast

to be divorced. Regional differences in marital status were ap

parent among Protestant, Catholic, and white women when

these groups were examined separately, but they were smaller

among black women (data not shown).

The differences by marital status between women who are

in the labor force and those who are not may largely reflect the

greater need of unmarried women than of married women to

earn their own living. Because of this, women who are in the

labor force are more likely than women who are not in the

labor force to be formerly married and less likely to be currently married.

Just as current marital status affects a woman’s exposure

to the risk of pregnancy and fertility, fertility is affected by a

woman’s past marital history-that is, whether she has experienced marital dissolution and whether she has remarried.

Marital disruption tends to reduce fertility by transferring women

into a nonmarried state; and remarriage, at least for white

women, is often associated with renewed childbearing,zo

Among ever married women 15-44 years of age in 1982,

84 percent had married only once, and 14 percent had married

two times (table 13). The remainder-about 2 percent—had

married three or more times. The percent married once was

highest among women in the youngest age group ( 15–24 years).

Among black women aged 25-44 years, that percent tended to

decline as age increased, although differences between adjacent age groups were not always statistically significant. Among

white women aged 2544 years, the percent married once only

did not vary by age. Considering all age groups together, black

women and white women and Hispanic and non-Hispanic

women were similar with respect to number of marriages.

About 2 out of 3 ever married women were currently

married and had been married once only (68 percent); that is,

they had never experienced a marital dismption. As shown in

table 13, this percent was higher among white women than

black womeu and in both racial groups, it was highest among

women in the youngest age group ( 15–24 years). Among black

women aged 25-44 years, the percent still married to the first

husband tended to decrease with each older age group, although

differences between adjacent age groups were not always statis13
tically significant. By contrast, white women aged 40-44 years

were no less likely than were their counterparts 25–29 years of

age to have remained married to their first husbands despite

having presumably been exposed to the risk of dissolution for a

considerably longer period of time. This reflects the increases

in divorce rates over the past decades (figure 6). By the time

women who were aged 25–29 years in 1982 reach the end of

their childbearing years, considerably fewer than 70 percent

will be likely to have remained married to their first husbands.

The percent of ever married women who were still married

to their first husband was significantly associated with several

of the characteristics shown in table 14. This percent was

higher among ever married women who were still living with

both parents at age 14 years (that is, women whose parents’

marriage was still intact at that age), than among women who

were not. It was higher among women whose mother or father

had completed high school than among women whose mother

or father had not completed high school. The percent still

married to the first husband also was associated with the

woman’s own educational attainment: 56 percent of those who

completed fewer than 12 years of school, compared with 73

percent of those who had completed some college, were still in

their first marriages. Catholic women were more likely than

Protestant women to have remained married to their first husbands, and women living in the Northeast and Midwest were

more likely than women living in the West to have done so.

The apparent differences according to labor force status probably reflect the effect of marital status on the likelihood of

working outside the home rather than the reverse. Differences

in the percent of ever married women married only once paralleled those in the percent still married to their first husband,

but they were generally smaller and less often statistically

sign~lcant.

“ r

5

t

o~

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985

1982

Year

Figure 6. Rate of divorces and annulments per 1,000 married

women 15 years of age or over: IJnitad States, 1960-82

Informal marriage

In recent years, increasing numbers of couples have chosen

to live together informally without being legally married. According to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the

number of such couples more than tripled, from 523,000 in

1970 to 1,891,000 in 1983.8 These estimates refer to the

number of households consisting of two (and only two) unrelated adults of opposite sex, with or without children under

age 15 years present. Because they include some people who

live together as friends, roommates, or lodgers, and exclude

some couples who live together informally as a couple but

share their household with other adults, the estimates capture

only approximately the population of couples who live together

as unmarried couples. In Cycle III of the National Survey of

Family Growth, direct information was collected for the first

time on informal marriage with a national sample of women.

Women were asked directly whether they were “married, not

married but living together with a partner, widowed, divorced

or . . . never been married.” Estimates derived from this direct

question were generally comparable to those published by the

U.S. Bureau of the Census, although in some subgroups of the

population the estimates differed.21

Researchers view informal marriage alternatively as a

prelude to marriage, in which partners “try out” being married

before creating a legal (and less easily dissolved) union, and as

a substitute for maniage, in which partners live together without

any intention of legally marrying.22 In any case, informal marriage has a profound effect on the woman’s exposure to the risk

of pregnancy (as embodied in such factors as frequency of intercourse) and also on women’s intentions regarding childbearing in the near fhture.2*

In 1982, about 6 percent of unmarried women 15-44

years of age were informally living with a partner (table 15).

About 5 percent of never married women and 9 percent of formerly married women were informally married. The percent

informally married was highest among women 25–29 years of

age (16 percent) and those 30-34 years of age ( 11 percent) and

lowest among those in the youngest and oldest age groups.

White unmarried women were more likely than black unmarried women to be living with a partner, particularly in the

age groups 25–34 years. However, when all women 1544

years were considered, including married and unmarried women,

a similar proportion of black and white women (3 percent)

were informally married (data not shown). Unmarried women

of Hispanic origin were about 3 times as likely as other ‘women

to be informally married.

The percent informally married varied little accorcliig to

the woman’s living arrangements at age 14 years or by religious

affiliation (table 16), but it was associated with level of pmental

education. Women whose mothers andlor fathers had completed fewer than 12 years of school were more likely than

those whose parents completed more years of schooll to be

living with a partner. The woman’s own educational attainment

was not significantly associated with informal marriage for all

age groups combined; but when women 15–1 9 years (many of

whom had not completed their education) were excluded, women

who had not completed high school were more likely to be

living with a partner than those who had completed high school.’l

14
Women with family incomes at least 1% times the poverty

level were more likely to be informally married than women

with lower incomes. This probably occurs because families

headed by two adults-whether formally or informally married—

have broader financial resources than families containing only

one adult. Informal marriage was more common in the West

than in the Northeast or South.

Frequency of sexual intercourse

Marital status and the formation and dissolution of sexual

unions are relevant to the fertility levels found in a population

primarily because they affect women’s exposure to the risk of

pregnancy. One of the most basic determinants of this risk is

whether the woman has sexual intercourse and, if she does,

how frequently. All other things being equal, women who have

intercourse more frequently than other women run a higher risk

of conception, because they are more likely to have intercourse

during their fertile periods.23 Given the high levels of contraceptive practice in the United States,24 modest variations in

frequency of intercourse may have relatively minor effects on

fertility levels. However, when comparing the fertili~ of married

and unmarried populations, the level of sexual activity is likely

to be a very important factor.

About 9 out of 10 women 15-44 years of age who had

ever had intercourse were sexually active in the 3 months

before their interview, and this proportion did not vary markedly

by age, although it tended to be highest among women 25–29

years of age and lowest in the youngest and oldest age groups

(table 17). Among women who had had intercourse in the 3

months before the interview, over tw&hirds reported having

intercourse once a week or more, and over two-fifths said they

had intercourse at least several times a week. The dM.ribution

by frequency of intercourse also tended to vary by age. For example, women aged 15–1 9 years tended to be more likely than

women in other age groups to have had intercourse only once a

month and less likely to have had intercourse several times a

week. Women aged 25–29 years were more likely than either

younger or older women to have had intercourse several times

a week. These data suggest a pattern whereby intercourse becomes more frequent as age increases, reaches a peak in the

age group 25–29 years, and thereafter declines.

Among women who have ever had intercourse, marital

status has a profound effect on both the likelihood of having

had intercourse in a recent period (the 3 months before the interview) and on the frequency of intercourse in that period.

Virtually all currently married women had had sexual intercourse in the 3 months before the interview, compared with

three-quarters of unmarried women who had ever had intercourse. The percent recently sexually active did not vary by

age among currently married women, but, among unmarried

women, women in the youngest age groups were more likely

than women in the oldest age groups to have had intercourse

recently. Never-mamied women were more likely than formerly

married women to have had intercourse in the last 3 months

(77 compared with 71 percent, data not shown); but among

those who had been recently sexually active, the llequency

of intercourse was similar and followed a similar pattern

by age.

Married women who had had intercourse in the 3 months

before the interview reported higher frequencies of intercourse

than comparable unmarried women. Currently married women

were more likely than women who were not currently married

to have had intercourse several times a week (42 percent compared with 29 percent of unmarried women) and less likely to

have had intercourse once a month or 2 to 3 times a month.

Frequency of intercourse appears to decline with age among

currently married women—for example, the percent having

had intercourse several times a week or more was 62 percent

among currently married women 15–1 9 years of age, compared with 35 percent among women 40-44 years of age. By

contrask among unmarried women, ilequency is highest among

women aged 25–29 years. The percent having intercourse

several times a week or more is 26 among women 15–19 years,

50 among women 25-29 years, and 35 among women 30-44

years (calculated from table 17).

To summarize, the data indicate that currently married

women were virtually certain to have had intercourse in the 3

months before interview, regardless of age, but their frequency

of intercourse tended to decline with advancing age. Unmarried women were less likely to have had intercourse recently, particularly as they became olden among those who

had had recent intercourse, frequency appeared to increase with

age up to ages 25–29 years, but it returned to a lower level

after age 30 years.

Because the distributions of black and white women by

marital status difYersubstantially (table 11) and because marital

status has a strong effect on frequency of intercourse, racial differences in frequency of intercourse should not be examined

without reference to marital status differences. overall, similar

proportions of black women and white women had had intercourse in the 3 months before the interview, among women

who had been recently sexually active, black women had lower

frequencies of intercourse (table 18). However, among currently

married women, there were no dfierences by race with respect

to frequency of intercourse or the likelihood of having had intercourse recently (table E). Among unmarned women, black

women were more likely than white women to have had intercourse in the last 3 months (84 compared with 72 percent);

but, if they had had intercourse recently, they were less likely

to have had intercourse frequently. For example, the percent

having intercourse several times a week was 22 among black

unmarried women and 31 percent among white unmarried

women. These data indicate that among unmarried women,

black women were more likely than white women to have had

intercourse infrequently (less than once a week), whereas white

women were more likely to have had it either frequently or not

at all.

The background factors shown in table 19 had little effect

on the proportion of women having had intercourse in the 3

months before the interview and on the frequency of intercourse. For all the groups shown, the percent who had had

intercourse in the last 3 months varied between 87 and 92 percent, and the percent distributions by frequency were also

generally similar.

15
Table E. Number of women 15-44 years of ege who ever had sexuel intercourse, percent who had intercourse in the last 3 months, and

percent distribution of women who had intercourse in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual intercourse, according to marital status, race,

and aga: United States, 1982

[Statistics are baaed on a sample of the hwaehold population of the conterminous United Statas. See append fixeafor discuaaion of tha sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Number in Percent Frequency of intercourse

thousands who /red

who intercourse 2-3 Several

ever had in the last Once a times a Once a times a Every

Marital status. race, and age intercourse 3 months Total month month weak week day

CURRENTLY MARRIED

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NOT CURRENTLY MARRIED

White

15-44 years . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 years . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–34 years..,.....,.......,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–44 years . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25,195 99.7

4,323 100.0

11,457 99.9

9,414 99.2

2,130 98.1

328 97.2

1,025 97.6

778 99.0

13,836 72.2

6,669 78.5

4,627 74.3

2,540 51.8

4,133 84.3

1,879 87.5

1,421 83.0

B33 79.7

Percent distribution

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

4.3 17.8 30.7 41.8 5.4

*3.4 11.9 27.7 43.7 13.3

4,3 16.4 29.4 45.6 4.3

4.9 22,3 33.6 36.2 3.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0 *5.3 21.7 31.2 39.7 *2.2

4,4 19,6 25.4 44.3 8.3

*4.2 21,4 19.0 45.7 *9.6

*3.8 17,4 22.9 47.5 8.4

100.0 14.8 23.6 24.1 31.3 6.2

100.0 16.8 27.4 25.8 25.5 4.6

100.0 10.8 20.5 20.9 39.4 8.4

100.0 17.1 16,6 26.0 33.4 “6.8

100.0 20.1 32.3 21.8 22.4 3.3

100.0 21.4 33.4 23.5 18.7 “3.1

100.0 15.9 34.4 1B.5 27.7 *3.5

100.0 24.7 26.1 23.6 22.4 *3.3

Marital dissolution and remarriage

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, divorce rates in the United

States more than doubled, from 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married

women aged 15 years or over in 1960 to 22.8 in 19793 (figure

6). In 1982, nearly one-third (32 percent) of ever married

women 1544 years of age had experienced the dissolution of

their first marriage through divorce, separation, or death of the

husband (table 20). Of these first marriages, 78 percent had

been dissolved by divorce, 15 percent by separation, and only

7 percent by death (figure 7).

The proportion of these women whose marriages dissolve

ultimately will be higher, because women whose first marriages

were still intact at the time of the survey continue to be at risk

of divorce, separation, or widowhood. Moreover, women who

first married many years before the survey had had more time

in which to end their marriages than those who married only

recently. In order to control for length of exposure to the risk of

disruption and to analyze trends in the proportions experiencing

dissolution, women were tabulated by when their first marriages

began-that is, by 5-year marriage cohorts (table 20).

The percent of first marriages that dissolved within 5 years

of marriage was about twice as high for women married during

the years 1975–79 as for women married during the years

1960-64 (22 compared with 11 percent, table 20). This is true

even though some women who married during the years 1975–

79 first married less than 5 years before the interview date, and

they had not completed 5 full years of exposure to the chance

of dissolution. This incomplete experience for the 1975–79

marriage cohort is indicated in table 20 by the percents in

italics. The higher levels of dissolution for women marrying in

the late 1970’s rather than in the early 1960’s reflect, of

course, the substantial rise in divorce rates during the period

1960-79. Estimates of 5-year dissolution rates for the 1960-

79 marriage cohorts shown in table 20 are generally consistent

with and show the same pattern as those estimated from

divorce-registration data. 25

Marriages of black women were dissolved at a faster pace

than marriages of white women at each duration of marriage.

By the time of the interview, about 30 percent of white ever

married women, compared with 48 percent of black ever

married women, had experienced the dissolution of their first

marriage. These differences have narrowed considerably over

time. Differences by race in the percent of first marriages that

were dissolved within 5 years and by the time of interview were

large and statistically significant among women first married in

1960-64, but they were smaller and nonsignificant among

those f~st married in 1975–79. The increase in marital dissolu16
100

14.9

90

80

70

60

78.3

50

40

30

20

10

6.8

0

El

El

•l

Separation

Divorce

Widowhood

11.1

82.8

6.1

All racea’ White Black

llncludes wh!te, black, and other races.

Figure 7. Percent distribution of dissolved first marriages of women

15-44 years of age by type of dissolution, eccording to race:

United States, 1982

tion during the 1960-79 period appears to have been conllned

to marriages involving white women. Black women first married

in the years 1960-64 were no less likely than those first

married in the late 1970’s to experience marital dissolution.

The pace of marital dissolution also was associated with

several of the background characteristics shown in table 21.

The percents who had had a marital dissolution within 5 years

of first marriage and by the time of the survey were higher for

women who had lived with one or neither of their parents at age

14 years than for women who had lived with both, suggesting

that marital disruption in the parental household tends to repeat

itself in the daughter’s own life. Marital dksolution was not

significantly associated with parental education, but it was with

the woman’s own educational attainment. About 23 percent of

women who completed fewer than 12 years of school had experienced marital dissolution within 5 years of marriage, and

44 percent had done so by the time of interview. Among women

with 13 or more years of completed schooling, the percents were

lower— 14 and 27, respectively.

The percent experiencing marital disruption within 5 years

of marriage did not differ by religious affiliation; but by the

time of the survey, the first marriages of Protestant women

were more likely than those of Catholic women to have dissolved. Marital dissolution was more common in the West than

in the Northeast and Midwest, both at the time of the survey

and within 5 years of marriage. Women in the labor force at the

time of the survey were more likely than women who were not

to have experienced the dissolution of their first marriage.

Because labor force status is measured as of the time of the survey, this may reflect the effect of dissolution on entry into the

labor force, as well as the effect of labor force participation

(and the economic independence it affords women) on the

likelihood of dissolution.26

Age at first marriage had a pronounced effect on the

likelihood of dissolution. Women first married at age 19 years

or younger were about 60 percent more likely than women who

married at a later age to have experienced a marital dissolution

within 5 years of marriage, and they were close to 80 percent

more likely to have experienced marital dissolution by the time

of the survey.

As divorce rates have risen, data from the marriageregistration area have shown an increase in the number of

remarriages involving women of childbearing age during recent

decades, but the rate of remarriage per 1,000 widowed or

divorced women aged 25-44 years has declineds (figure 8). In

1982, about 61 percent of women 15-44 years of age whose

first marriage was dissolved by divorce or death had remarried

(table 22). Over four-ffis of women who were divorced or

widowed in the 1960’s had remarried by the time of the survey,

compared with only about one-half of the women divorced or

widowed during the period 1975–79. This reflects the longer

period of time in which the former group of women could have

remarried, and it may also reflect the decline in the likelihood

160

150

140

0

0

0-

& 130

Q

a

‘x

a

120

I

110

0

1111111 1111111111111 J

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985

1963 1982

Year

Figure 8. Rete of remarriages per 1,000 widowed or divorced

women 25-4.4 years of age: Marriage-registration area, 1963-82
of remarriage between the 1960’s and late 1970’s. Women

whose first marriages ended in the 1970’s were less likely than

women whose first marriages ended in the 1960’s to remarry

within 2 to 5 years. However, women whose first marriages

ended in the 1970’s were probably older, on the average, at the

time their marriages ended than women were who divorced or

were widowed in the 1960’s. This difference in age is likely

because the survey sample represented only those women who

were divorced and widowed in the 1960’s and who were age 44

years or younger in 1982. These women were likely to be

relatively young at widowhood or divorce and were therefore

more likely to remarry. Because of this limitation of the survey

sample and because none of the differences in the percents

remarrying within 2 to 5 years are significant, these results by

themselves can not conclusively demonstrate a decline in the

likelihood of remarriage. As in table 20, some of the percents

in table 22 are biased downward, in this case because not all

women whose marriages ended during a given period of time

had completed the indicated number of years between dissolution and interview. These percents are italicized.

The likelihood of remarriage among divorced or widowed

women was significantly lower for black women than for white

women. Considering all marriage cohorts together, 62 percent

of white women and 48 percent of black women had remarried

by the time of the survey. Similar differences appear in the

cumulative proportions remarrying within 2 to 5 years after

divorce or death and for 3 of the 4 marriage dissolution

cohorts.

Women whose first marriage ended in separation only are

not included in table 22 because they are not legally able to

remarry. However, if all women whose first marriages dissolved are considered, including women whose fwst marriage

ended in separation only, the difference by race in the percent

who remarried is even larger (31 percent of black women

compared with 55 percent of white women). This is because

the first marriages of black women are more likely than those

of white women to end in separation only. As shown in figure

7, 36 percent of dissolved first marriages of black women

ended in separation only, compared with 11 percent of dissolved first marriages of white women. Thus the lower percent

of divorced or widowed black women who remarried is compounded by a higher proportion of black women who are no

longer married but are not legally free to remarry.

Remarriage was more common among women who were

relatively young—24 years or less—when their first marriage

dissolved than among women who were older (table 23).

About 58 percent of the former group, compared with only 39

percent of the latter, had remarried within 5 years of divorce or

death of the spouse. Remarriage within 5 years was also more

common among women living in the West or South than

among those living in the Northeast and among women who

were not in the labor force at the time of the survey than among

women who were. ThLs latter difference is significant at the 10-

percent level only, and it probably reflects the effect of remarriage on labor force participation as well as the effect of labor

force participation on the likelihood of remarrying. None of

the other characteristics shown in table 23 were significantly

related to the cumulative proportions remarrying.

18
References

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235, Apr. 1956.

2J. Bongaarts: A framework for analyzing the proximate determinants

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‘$Nationa] Center for Health Statistics: Advance IWPOrt of final m~-

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‘T. Espenshade: The economic consequences of divorce. Journal of

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7S. L. Hofferth: Updating children’s life course. Journal ofMam”age

and the Family 47( 1): 93-115, Feb. 1985.

‘U.S. Bureau of the Census: Marital status and living arrarrgemenk

March 1983. Current Population Reports. Series P-20, No. 389.

Washington. U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1983.

‘National Center for Health Statistic Vital Statistics of the United

States, 1979, Vol. I, Natality. DHHS Pub. Na. (PHS) 84-1100.

Public Health Service. Washington. U.S. Government Printing Office,

1984.

l~ational Center for Health Statistics: Advance report of fi~ na~ty

statistics, 1983. Month~v Vital Statistics Report. Vol. 34, No. 6

Supp. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 85-1120. Public Health Service.

Hyattsville, Md., Sept. 20, 1985.

1lNational Center for Health Statistics, C. A. Bachrach and M. C.

Horn Marriage and first intercourse, marital dissolution, and remarriage, United States, 1982. Advance Data From Vital and Health

Statistics. No. 107. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 85-1250. Public Health

Service. Hyattsville, Md., Apr. 12, 1985.

‘2U.S, Bureau of the Census: Number, timing, and duration of marriages and divorces in the United States: June 1975. Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 297. Washington. U.S. Government

Printing Of?ice, 1976.

13M- Zelnik, J. F. Kantner, and K. Ford: Sex and PregnancY in

Adolescence. Beverly Hills, Calif. Sage Publications, 1981.

1AM.Zelnik and J. F. Kantnec Sexual activity, COM.raCf2ptke use ~d

pregnancy among metropolitan-area teenagers: 1971-1979. Fami~v

Planning Perspectives 12(5): 230-237, Sept.-Ott. 1980.

15National Center for Health Statistics, W. Grady Remarriages of

women 15-44 years of age whose fmt marriage ended in divorce,

United States, 1976. Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics. No. 58. DHEW Pub. No. (PHS) 80-1250. Public Health Service. Hyattsville, Md., Feb. 14, 1980.

ICW. F. pratt and G. E. Hendershoh Use of Family Pkmnirtg Services

by Sexually Active Teenage Women, 1982. Paper presented at the

annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Minneapolis, May 3, 1984.

17L. S. Zabin, J. F. Kantner, and M. ZelniIc The risk of adolescent

pregnancy in the fmt months of intercourse. Family Planning Perspectives 11(4): 215-222, July-Aug. 1979.

18M. ZeMlk md F. K. Sh& First intercourse among young Americans.

Farni(v Planning Perspectives 15(2): 64-70, Mar.-Apr. 1983.

*9M. Horn Incidence and Correlates of Unintended Childbearing

Among Teenagers in the United States: Findings From the NSFG,

Cycle III, 1982. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Boston, Mar. 30, 1985.

20A. Thornton: Marital dissolution, remarriage, and childbearing.

Demography 15(3): 361–380, August 1978.

ZIC. Bachrac~ Chwacteristics of Cohabiting Women in the United

States: Evidence From the Nationrd Survey of Family Growth, Cycle

III. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Boston, March 28, 1985.

ZZK. T~fer ~d M. Hem: NonmaritaI Cohabitation hong Young

Womerx Findings From a National Survey. Paper presented at the

annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Boston,

March 28, 1985.

ZSW. H. J-es: The causes of the decline in fecundability with age.

Social BioIogv 26(4): 33&334, Winter 1979.

zdNational Center for Health Statistics, W. Mosher ad C. Bachraclx

Contraceptive Use United States, 1982. Vital and Health Statistics

Series 23, No. 12. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 86-1988. Public Health

Service. Washington. U.S. Government Printing OftIce, Sept. 1986.

25National Center for Health Statistics, A. Plateris: Divorces by

marriage cohort. Vital and Health Statistics. Series 21, No. 34.

DHEW Pub. No. (PHS) 79-1912. Public Health Service. Washington.

U.S. Government Printing Office, Aug. 1979.

26A. Cherlin Mam.age, Divorce, Remarriage. Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard University Press. 1981.

27National Center for Health Statistics, C. A. Bachrach, M. C. Horn,

W. D. Mosher. and I. Shirnizu: National Survey of Family Growth,

Cycle III, Sample Design, Weighting, and Variance Estimation. Vita/

and Heallh Statistics. Series 2, No. 98. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 85-

1372. Public Health Service. Washington. U.S. Government Printing

Otlice, Sept. 1985.

19
‘*National Center for Health Statistics, D. French: National Survey and variance estimation. Vital and Health Statistics. Series 2, No.

of Family Growth, Cycle I Sample design, estimation procedures, 87. DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 81-1361. Public Health Service. Washand variance estimation. Vital and Health Statistics. Series 2, No. ington. U.S. Government Printing Office, Feb. 1981.

76. DHEW Pub. No. (PHS) 78-1350. Public Health Service. Wash- 30U.S. Bureau of the Census: Money income and poverty status of

ington. U.S. Government Printing Office, Jan. 1978. families and persons in the United States, 1982. Current Population

z9Nationa[ Center for Health Statistics, W. Grady: National surveY Repotis. Series P-60, No. 140. Washington. U.S. Government Printing

of Family Growth, Cycle II: Sample design, estimation procedures, Ofllce, July 1983. table A-1.

20
List of detailed tables

1. Number of women 15–24 years of age and cumulative percent who began dating before reaching selected ages, by

race, Hispanic origin, and age United States, 1982 . . . . . .

2. Number of women 15-24 years of age and cumulative percent who began dating before reaching selected ages, by

selected characteristics: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . .

3. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever had sexual intercourse before reaching selected

ages, by race, Hispanic origin, and age: United States,

1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4. Number of women 15–44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever had sexual intercourse before reaching selected

ages, by selected characteristics: United States, 1982 . . . .

5. Number of never married women 1544 years of age and

cumulative percent who ever had sexual intercourse before

reachkg selected ages, by race, Hispanic origin, and age:

United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6. Number of never married women 15-44 years of age and

cumulative percent who ever had sexual intercourse before

reaching selected ages, by selected characteristics: United

States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever married before reaching selected ages, by

race, Hispanic origin, and age: United States, 1982 . . . . . .

8. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever married before reaching selected ages, by

selected characteristics: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . .

9. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and percent dktribution by timing of marriage relative to first sexual intercourse, according to race, Hispanic origin, and age

United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and percent distribution by timing of marriage relati’ve to first sexual intercourse, according to selected characteristics: United

States. 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11. Number of women 15-44 years of age and percent d~tribution by marital status, according to race, Hispanic origin,

andage: United States, 1982.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12. Number of women 15–44 years of age and percent distribution by marital status, according to selected characteristics:

United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and percent distribution by number of marriages and current marital status, according to race, Hispanic origin, and age:

United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

tal status, according to selected characteristics: United

States. 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

22 15. Number of unmarried women 15–44 years of age and percent informally married, by mtital status, race, Hispanic

origin, andage United States, 1982. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

23 16. Number of unmarried women 15–44 years of age and percent informally married, by selected characteristics: United

Stites, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

17. Number of women 15-44 years of age who ever had sexual

24 intercourse, percent who had sexual intercourse in the last 3

months, and percent dktribution of women who had intercourse in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual inter25 course, according to marital status and age United States,

1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

18. Number of women 15-44 years of age who ever had sexual

intercourse, percent who had sexual intercourse in the last 3

26 months, and percent dkribution of women who had intercourse in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual intercourse, according to race, Hispanic origin, and age: United

States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

27 19. Number of women 1544 years of age who ever had sexual

intercourse, percent who had sexual intercourse in the last 3

months, and percent dktribution of women who had inter28 course in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual intercourse, according to selected characteristics: United States,

1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

29 20. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and

cumulative percent whose first marriage was dissolved by

separation, divorce, or death, by exact years since first

marriage, according to race, Hispanic origin, and year of

30

first marriage: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

21. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and

cumulative percent whose first marriage was dissolved by

separation, divorce, or death, by exact years since first

31 marriage, according to selected characteristic United States,

1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

22. Number of women 15-44 years of age whose first marriage

32

was dissolved by divorce or death, and cumulative percent

who remarried, by exact years since dissolution, race, Hispanic origin, and year first marriage dissolved: United

States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

43

23. Number of women 15=$4 years of age whose first marriage

was dissolved by divorce or death and cumulative percent

who remarried, by exact years since dissolution and selected characteristics: United States, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

34

14. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and percent distribution by number of marriages and current mari21
Tabla 1. Number of woman 15-24 years of age and cumulative percent who began dating bafora reaching selectad ages, by race, Hispsmic

origin, and age: United Statea, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the conterm!nous Untted States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampllng vanabllmy, and definitions of terms]

Exact age

Number of

women in 73 14 15 16 17 18 20 All

Race, Hispanic origin, and age thousands years years years years years years years ages

All races and originsl Cumulative percent

15-24 years......,.....,,.. . . 20,150 4.6 14.2 31.0 54.5 81.3 88.8 93.2 93.7

15–19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,521 6,0 17.7 37.3 62.2 84.3 88.1 . 88.9

15–17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,122 6.4 20.4 41.0 66.0 80.1 81.7

18–19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,399

. . .

5,6 14.6 33.1 57.7 89.1 95:6 97.2

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,629 3.3 11.0 25,2 47.7 78.6 89.4 9+:1” 98.0

RACE

White

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,670 4.7 14.9 32.4 56.3 83.6 89.8 93.8 94.3

15-19 years.......,.....,., . 7,815 6.4 19.0 39.2 63.6 85.8 88.8 . . . 89.6

15-17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,119 6.6 21.7 43.5 67.5 81.4 82.8

18-19 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .

3,695 6,1 15.9 34.4 59.2 90.6 95:5 97.2

20-24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,855

. . .

3.2 11.2 26.5 49.9 81.8 90.8 97.6 98.5

81ack

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., 2,888 3,7

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., 1,416 4,9

15–17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821 6.2

18-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595 *3.1

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,472 “2.6

10.5 22.2 44.7 72.0 86.1 92.7 93.0

12.5 26.4 53.0 77.1 85.5 . . . 86.2

16.1 31.2 59.9 75,6 78.2

*7.6 19.9 43.5 79.2 95:6 ::: 97.3

8.5 18.1 36.7 67.0 86.6 99.0 99.5

Hispanic origin

Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,697 *3.O *1O,2 29.2 55.1 72.0 81.4 86.6 86.6

Non-H ispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,452 4.7 14,5 31.1 54.5 82.2 89.4 93.8 94.3

I Includes white, black, and other races.

22
Table 2. Number of women 15-24 years of age and cumulative percent who began dating before reaching selected ages, by selected

characteristics: United States, 1982

[Statisticsarebaaed on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

samplmg variability, and definitions of terms]

Exact age

Number of

women in 73 14 75 16 17 18 20 All

Characteristic of respondent thousands years years years years yaars years years agas

Cumulative percent

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with oneor neither parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s fathafs education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

south . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20,150

14,775

5;375

5,213

9,748

5,189

6,064

7,594

6,492

7,816

6,835

“5,498

11,265

7,074

4,432

5,360

6,508

3,849

10,375

9,775

4.6

4.1

5.9

4.7

4.2

5.3

3.9

5.2

4.5

5.7

4.2

*3.5

3.7

5.0

7.5

84.1

3.6

*3.7

4.3

4.9

14.2

13.2

16.8

12.4

14.8

14.8

11.2

16.0

14.8

18.7

11.9

10.6

13.0

14.8

20.6

13.3

11.3

12.8

12.7

15.7

31.0

29.1

36.1

28.4

30.7

34.1

28.3

31.6

32.7

38.4

25.9

26.7

28.8

32.3

40.2

28.5

28.0

28.8

28.0

34.1

54.5

52.6

59.7

53.5

54.0

56.5

52.5

52.5

58.8

62.2

51.6

47.3

52.9

56.0

62.4

53.1

51.5

52.5

50.3

59.0

81.3

80.3

84.0

80.3

82.5

80.0

81.1

80.5

82.4

80.6

83.3

79.9

81.0

81.7

83.8

84.8

80.0

75.6

81.3

81.3

88.8

88.1

90.6

89.1

88.7

88.6

88.8

87.6

90.1

84.8

92.2

90.2

89.0

88.8

89.7

92.6

88.3

83.2

90.3

87.1

93.2

93.1

93.5

93.0

93.4

93.1

93.5

92.7

93.6

86.0

98.3

97.3

93.5

92.6

95.4

95.0

93.8

87.4

96.0

90.3

93.7

93.7

93.6

93.4

93.8

93.8

93.6

93.0

94.5

86.0

98.3

98.9

94.0

93.2

95.9

95.3

94.0

88.4

96.7

90.5

1Includes Protestant, Catholtc, other religions, and no religion.

23
Table 3. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever had sexual intercourse before reaching selected ages, by

race, Hispenic origin, and age: United States, 1982

[Statmt!cs are based on a sample of the household population of the contermlnous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and de finmons of terms]

Exact age

Number of

worn en in 15 17 18 79 20 22 25 All

Race, Hispanic origin, and age thousands years years years years years years years ages

All races and origlnsl

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–39 years,......,......,.. .

40-44 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE

White

15–44yesrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hispanic

15-44 years..............,,. ,,

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099

9,521

10,629

10,263

9,381

7,893

6,412

45,367

7,815

8,855

8,569

7,916

6,697

5,515

6,985

1,416

1,472

1#335

1,144

884

734

4,393

2,600

1,793

49,706

27,813

21,893

Cumulative Dercent

7.5

11.8

9.7

8.7

4.8

4.5

*3.3

6.1

10.2

7.8

7.7

3.5

3.7

*1.9

16.6

19.8

20.7

14.9

13.6

12.5

15.1

9.2

11.9

*5.2

7.4

9.8

4.2

26.7

34.0

32.9

29.4

20.0

20.2

19.5

24.0

31.2

29.8

27.2

17.8

17.3

16.5

45.9

49.7

52.2

47.4

37.7

38.7

46.0

28.7

34.8

19.9

26.6

37.8

19.9

40.1

42.4

48.3

47.4

34.4

31.1

30.7

37.1

39.9

44.9

45.0

31.8

28.2

27.0

61.4

56.7

70.7

68.7

53.9

53.9

59.7

40.1

45.5

32.4

40.1

46.2

32.3

55.1

46.3

64.7

65.7

52.3

48.0

48.1

52.6

44.2

62.0

64.0

49.8

45.5

44.3

74.2

58.7

84.2

83.1

71.5

70.3

76,4

52.3

56.2

46.6

55.3

59.6

50.0

65.7

73:8

78.0

67.3

62.6

61.8

64.0

7i:a

76.8

65.9

61.1

59.2

80,9

. . .

88.5

92.4

81,5

81.4

85,4

63.3

64.7

61.2

65.9

67.0

64.5

77.6

82:8

90.1

86.3

79.6

79.3

77.0

8;;6

90.5

86.3

78.9

78,2

86.7

92;8

95.5

94.4

92.8

92.5

75.4

73.7

78.0

77.8

74.7

82.5

84.0

. . .

95:2

95.1

93.2

91.2

83.8

. . .

95:9

95.6

93.2

91.0

88.8

. . .

. . .

97.7

98.2

96.9

96.7

81.2

75.6

89.2

84.3

76.8

93.8

86.3

46.9

85.4

96.7

98.0

97.9

98.2

86.0

44.9

84.5

97.0

98.2

97.6

98.3

89.7

58.9

93.2

98.6

98.8

99.4

99.7

84.5

75.6

97.5

86.4

77.3

98.0

‘Includes white, black, and other races,

24
Table 4. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever had sexuel intercourse before reaching selected ages, by

selected characteristics: United States, 1982

[Statlstlcs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampllng variability, and definitions of terms]

Exact age

Number of

women in 15 17 18

Characteristic of respondent

19 20 22 25 All

thousands years years years years years yeats years ages

Cumulative percent

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with oneor neither parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099

40,849

13,250

18,846

23,982

11,271

20,505

19,381

14,214

13,465

20,257

20,377

31,298

17,377

11,851

13,981

17,308

10,958

31,685

22,414

7.5

5.5

13.8

10.0

6.7

5.1

9.3

7.7

4.6

16.4

5.9

3.3

8.6

5.3

4.8

7.0

9.2

8.3

6.6

8.8

26.7

22.7

39.2

33.6

23.6

21.9

33.0

23.9

21.6

46.2

25.2

15.4

29.7

21.2

18.8

26.9

31.8

27.0

24.3

30.2

40.1

35.8

53.4

48.4

37.0

32.8

47.0

37.4

33.8

56.1

43.0

26.7

44.3

32.7

29.0

41.4

46.8

40.0

38.7

42.1

55.1

50.9

68.1

64.5

52.1

45.7

63.7

52.4

46.4

63.1

62.8

42.1

60.8

44.7

43.5

55.4

62.1

56.3

53.8

56.9

65.7

62.3

76.0

74.6

63.4

55.7

73.7

64.2

56.1

66.7

73.6

57.1

70.9

56.3

53.6

66.4

71.8

68.0

65.9

65.3

77.6

75.6

83.7

85.1

75.8

69.0

84.2

76.6

69.4

69.2

85.4

75.4

80.9

71.8

70.6

78.0

81.7

78.2

79.1

75.5

84.0

82.9

87.5

90.4

82.0

77.6

89.4

82.8

77.9

71.1

89.6

87.0

85.9

79.9

80.4

83.7

86.2

84.9

85.8

81.5

86.3

85.5

88.8

92.7

84.3

79.9

91.6

85.0

80.5

71.8

91.6

90.6

87.7

82.8

83.3

85.9

87.9

87.4

88.3

83.5

‘Includes Protestant, Catholic, other religions, and no religion.

25
Table 5. Number of never married woman 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who evar had sexual intercourse bafore reaching

selected ages, by race, Hispanic origin, and age United Statas, 1982

[Statlstlcs are based on a sample of the household population of the contermlnoua United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample dastgn, estimates of

sampling var!abllity, and definitions of terms]

Number of Exact age

never

marriad 15 17 18 19 20 22 25 All

Race, Hispanic origin, and age worn en years years years years years years years ages

All races and originsl

15–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20–24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-17 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hiepanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cumulative percent

19,164 8.3 25.9 36.6 46.6 52.2 57.7 60.5 61.3

8,839 10.4 30.5 38.6 42.3 . . . 42.8

4,968

. . . . . .

12.6 26.9 . . . . . . 30.1

5,811

. . .

6.5 24.2 36:9 52.0 60:4 70.4 73.3

3,648 7.4 20.1 35.1 50.3 63.1 75.1 82:9

866

85.6

*4. 1 *14.1 19.8 39.0 46.6 51.7 59.8 66.9

14,948

7,193

3,971

4,502

2,666

586

3,545

1,377

B18

1,084

851

233

6.1

8.5

10.5

*3.4

*5.2

“1.0

77.3

19.6

21.9

17.0

15.3

*1 2.9

21.0 31.3

27.0 35.6

24.2

18.1 29:5

13.6 28.8

*2.6 *4.5

46.3 59.9

48.4 55.5

40.6 . . .

48.9 67.5

42.9 59.9

34.6 51.0

41.6

39.6

45:3

44.3

25.9

69.8

57.6

. . .

80.7

75.9

68.4

47.5

. . .

54:5

58.6

33.7

73.9

.,,

85:3

84.6

77.2

53.6 56.8 57.6

. . . . . . 40.2

. . . . . . 27.5

65.7 . . . 69.5

72.6 82.2 85.0

37.6 48.3 55.9

77.9 79.0 79.6

. . . . . . 57.8

. . . 43.8

90.6 ::: 90.8

91.9 95.6 96.1

86.1 89.3 96.8

1,479 *8.3 24.8 36.8 43.5 48.2 50.5 51.9 54.1

745 *8.6 29.9 40.7 40.4 40.4

734 *8.1 “19.6 33.5 46.7 56:1” 60:8 63:5 67.9

17,685 8.3 26.0 36.6 46.8 52.5 58.3 61.2 61.9

8,094 10.5 30.6 38.5 42.4 43.0

9,591 6.5 22.0 35.0 50.6 60:5 7;.’2 76:5 77.8

1Includes white, black, and other races.

26
Table 6. Number of never married women 15-44 years of aga and cumulative parcent who ever had sexual intercourse befora reaching

selected agas, by selected characteristics: United States, 1982

[Statwtlcs are baaed on a sample of the household population of the conterminoua United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design,estimates of

samDlmq varlablllty, and defmmons of termsl

Number of Exact age

never

married 15 17 18 19 20 22 25 All

Characteristic of respondent women years years years years years years years ages

Cumulative percent

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with oneor neither parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

ln labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notre labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19,164

13,953

5,211

4,754

9,053

5,357

5,547

6,897

6,720

6,889

5,414

6,861

9,884

7,101

4.970

4.903

5,666

3,624

11,061

8,103

8.3

5.7

15.4

12.9

7.6

5.6

12.6

9.2

4.0

15.0

5.8

3.6

10.4

5.1

5.5

7.4

11.1

9.3

6.2

11.3

25.9

20.7

39.6

36.7

22.7

21.7

35.5

24.3

19.5

34.4

26.5

16.8

29.4

19.8

18.6

26.4

31.1

26.8

22.1

31.0

36,6

31.1

51.2

48.6

33.7

30.8

48.0

33.9

29.9

39.9

42.3

28.8

39.8

30.2

28.4

38.7

43.1

34.8

34.0

40.1

46.6

41.4

60.6

58.5

43.7

40.8

57.5

43.5

40.7

42.0

54.6

44.9

49.7

39.2

41.2

46.2

52.6

45.1

45.4

48.2

52.2

47.1

65.7

63.4

49.8

46.3

60.6

50.0

47.4

43.6

59.0

55.4

54.5

45.5

46.8

52.3

57.1

51.8

53.0

51.0

57.7

53.5

69.2

67.1

55.8

52.8

64.8

54.3

55.4

44.0

65.6

65.3

58.4

53.3

54.7

57.2

61.1

57.3

61.9

52.0

60.5

56.7

70.6

69.6

58.0

56.6

67.8

56.9

58.1

44.6

67.4

71.0

60.1

57.3

59.7

58.8

62.3

61.0

65.0

54.3

61.3

57.5

71.5

71.0

58.4

57.6

68.9

57.8

58.7

44.9

68.6

72.0

61.1

58.0

60.2

59.8

63.1

62.0

66.4

54.4

1Includes Protestant, Cathohc, other rellglons, and no rel!gion.

27
Table 7. Number of women 15-44 years of aga and cumulative percent who ever married before reaching selected ages, by rata, Hispanic

origin, and age: United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the contermlnous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampl!ng variability, and defmittons of terms]

Exact age

Number of

worn en in 17 18 19 20 21 22 25 All

Race, Hispanic origin, and age thousands years years . years years years years years ages

All races and origlnsl

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15–19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15–19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years.......,......,,..

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-Hispanic

15–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099 5.6

9,521 *2.3

10,629 4.4

10,263 6.1

9,381 5.9

7,893 8.4

6,412 7.7

45,367

7,815

8,855

8,569

7,916

6,697

5,515

6,985

1,416

1,472

1,335

1,144

884

734

Cumulative percent

5.7

*2.6

4.9

6.2

5.9

8.3

7.2

5.0

“0.2

“1.4

5.5

“5.4

10.1

13.4

4,393 9.3

2,600 *8. 1

1,793 “11,0

49,706 5.3

27,813 4.0

21,893 6.9

11.4

4.8

8.2

13.6

12.8

15.5

15.9

11.7

5.4

9.1

14.0

12.9

15.0

15.7

9.1

*1.4

“3.7

10.5

11.6

17.8

17.9

14.8

14.2

15,8

11.1

8.5

14.4

21.4

6.7

16.9

26.2

25.7

27.0

30.0

22.4

7.5

18.9

27.2

26.2

27.4

30.4

15.0

*2. 1

7.3

18.8

19.9

25.8

27.5

23.6

21.6

26.6

21.2

16.4

27.3

31.6

25:9

38.1

38.7

40.8

44.7

33.3

28:9

39.8

40.1

42.2

45.9

21.7

12:2

27.0

30.3

33.9

39.7

35.3

30.1

42.9

31.2

23.6

40.9

39.7

34:3

46.3

49.8

52.8

55.2

41,9

. . .

38.0

48.6

51.6

54.8

56.2

28.2

. . .

17.3

32.9

40.0

45.9

50.9

44.7

37,0

55.9

39.2

29.2

52.0

46.8

39.’;

55.4

60.0

62.6

66.1

49.4

42;6

58.7

62.4

64.2

67.6

33.8

2;:8

37.9

47.1

58.7

60.0

50.5

41.5

63.4

46.5

34.0

62.4

58.5

.,.

. . .

70.7

76.1

82. ?

82.4

61.3

. . .

74:3

78.5

83.9

84.2

42.8

. . .

5; :1”

61.2

72.8

72.7

61.1

49.4

78.1

58.3

47.3

79,9

64.6

7.2

45.3

75.8

87.6

93. ?

95.0

67.1

8.0

49.2

78.4

89.7

94.5

96.1

49.2

*2.8

26.4

58.2

74.4

83.4

88.3

66.3

50.4

89.4

64.4

43.0

91,6

llncludes whtte, black, and other races.

28
Table 8. Number of women 15-44 years of age and cumulative percent who ever merriad before reaching salectad ages, by selected

characteristics: Unitad States, 1982

[Statistics are baaed on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimatea of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Exact age

Number of

women in 77 78 19 20 21 22 25 All

Characteristic of respondent thousands years years years years years years years ages

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with oneor neither parent.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13yeara or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12years . d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In la bor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099

40,849

13,250

18,846

23,982

11,271

20,505

19,381

14,214

13,465

20.257

20.377

31,298

17,377

11,851

13,981

17,308

10,958

31,685

22,414

Cumulative Dercent

5.6 11.4 21.4 31.6 39.7 46.8 58.5 64.6

4.7

8.5

9.7

4.1

“2.0

8.4

4.8

2.6

15.0

3.5

1.5

7.0

3.4

2.8

5.4

7.7

5.6

4.8

6.7

10.3

14.7

18.1

9.3

4.7

16.0

10.4

6.2

23.6

11.1

3.7

14.2

7.5

6.1

11,2

14.9

11.9

10.6

12.5

20.1

25.5

31.3

18.7

10.6

29.4

20.0

11.7

31.7

27.4

8.6

26.0

14.7

13.1

20.6

27.1

22.5

20.4

22.8

30.6

34.5

43.8

27.8

19.0

41.0

30.6

19.3

37.1

41.5

18.0

37.1

23.7

19.9

31.7

38.1

33.7

30.5

33.1

38.8

42.5

51.6

37.1

25.1

50.5

38.6

25.5

40.5

51.3

27.6

45.3

32.8

28.0

40.5

45.3

42.3

38.7

41.1

46.9

46.6

59.6

44.5

30.5

57.5

46.3

32.1

42.8

59.5

36.9

52.4

40.4

35.4

48.5

52.4

48.3

46.2

47.7

59.3

56.1

69.1

56.4

45.4

66.8

59.6

45.2

46.6

69.0

55.9

63.0

52.7

49.7

59.4

62.8

60.1

58.2

59.0

65.8

60.7

74.8

62.3

52.5

72.9

64.4

52.7

48.8

73.3

66.3

68.4

59.1

58.1

64.9

67.3

66.9

65.1

63.8

llncludea Protestant, Cathol!c, other relrglons, and no rel!glon.

29
Table 9. Number of ever married women 15-44 yeers of age and percent distribution by timing of marriage relative to first sexual intercourse,

according to rece, Hispanic origin, and age: United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the contermlnous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definmons of terms]

First intercourse Months between first intercourse and marriage

Number of in same month

women in as marriage 5 months 6–11 12-35 36-59 60 months

Race, Hispanic origin, and age thousands Total or later or less months months months or more

All races and originsl

15-44 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–29 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–34 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

White

15–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 yesrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years................,.. . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hispanic origin

Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non- Hispanic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34,935

5,500

7,778

8,218

7,349

6,090

30,419

48975

6,719

7,099

6,326

5,300

3,440

427

777

851

737

648

2,914

32,021

Percent distribution

100.0 30.5 12.1

100.0 16.7 8.3

100.0 21.4 12.4

100.0 28.5 14.5

100.0 39.1 12.4

100.0 46.9 11.7

100.0 32.6 12.4

100.0 17,7 8.8

100.0 22.5 12.7

100.0 30.2 15.3

100.0 41.8 12.3

100.0 51.8 11.9

100.0 8.5 8.3

100.0 “4.0 *3.6

100.0 ‘4.1 *8.3

100.0 10.2 8.9

100.0 14.3 *7.3

100.0 *7.8 11.6

100.0 40.2 *11.7

100.0 29.6 12.2

7.7

9.3

8.1

7.1

8.1

*6.2

7.7

9.4

8.6

6.9

8.2

*5.5

8.1

*4.7

“5.1

8.1

10.7

11.1

*6.6

7.9

24.3 12.7

32.4 22.9

26.9 14.2

24.1 11.3

19.9 9.8

19.0 6.9

24.3 11.7

33.2 22.0

27.4 13.2

23.8 10.6

18.9 9.1

18.9 “5.0

25.9 22.7

23.6 35.8

26.1 24.7

27.4 19.5

30.8 16.8

19.4 22.6

21.2 *11.O

24.5 12.9

12.6

10.3

16.9

14.4

10.6

9.3

11.2

8.9

15.6

13.2

9.7

* 7.0

26.6

28.3

31.6

26.0

20.1

27.4

*9.3

12.9

‘ Includes white, black, and other races,

30
TabIe 10. Number of ever marriad women 15-44 years of age and percent distribution by timing of marriage relative to first sexual intercourse,

according to selected characteristics: Unitad States, 1982

[Statistics are based on s ssmple of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the ssmple design, estimstes of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

First intercourse Months between first intercourse and marriage

Number of in same month

women in as marriage 5 months 6-11 12–35 36-59 60 months

Characteristic of respondent thousands Total or later or less months months months or more

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with one or neither parent. . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12yesrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent distribution

348935

26,896

8,039

4,092

4,929

5,914

4,958

2,484

7,493

6,575

14,844

13.515

21,414

10,276

6,881

9,078

11,642

7,334

20,625

14,310

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

30.5

32.0

25.5

32.6

29.0

29.3

31.1

30.8

28.6

26.0

31.2

31.9

29.8

33.2

29.6

27.5

33.6

30.1

29.2

32.3

12.1

12.6

10.7

13.4

12.0

9.3

13.7

11.5

10.0

16.2

12.0

10.3

12.2

11.9

11.7

13.5

12.5

10.2

12.1

12.2

7.7

7.5

8.6

8.6

8.0

*5.1

8.1

9.2

*4.5

10.2

8.6

5.7

8.2

8.1

6.6

9.9

7.4

6.7

7.7

7.7

24.3

23.6

26.6

23.9

25.0

23.4

23.1

23.8

27.5

26.9

26.3

20.7

24.4

23.3

26.3

22.6

22.8

26.6

23.8

24.9

12.7

12.5

13.6

0.7

3.0

6.9

2.0

3.3

3.2

0.9

12.6

11.9

15.1

10.9

13.0

16.0

12.0

11.3

16.1

9.9

12.5 9.4

13.8 17.6

13.6 11.6

10.5 13.0

12.1 13.7

13.4 13.1

13.4 10.3

11.4 14.9

13.3 13.8

11.9 10.9

1Includes Protestant, Cstholic, other rellg ions, and no religion,

\

‘, 31
Table 11. Number ofwomen 15-Myears ofageand percent distribution bymeritel status, accortingtoraca, Hispanic origin, and age

United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States, See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Marital status

Number of Formerly married

women in Never Currently

Race. Hispanic origin, and age thousands Total marriad married Total Widowed Divorced Separated

All races andoriginsl

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 yeers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40–44 years.,.............,,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20–24 years......,.....,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 yaars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099

9,521

10,629

10,263

9,381

7,893

6,412

45,367

7,815

8,855

B,569

7,916

6,697

5,515

6,985

1,416

1,472

1,335

1,144

884

734

4,393

2,600

1,793

49,706

27,813

21,893

Percent distribution

— 100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100,0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

35.4

92.8

54.7

24.2

12.4

6.9

5.0

32.9

92.0

50.8

21.6

10.3

5.5

“3.9

50.8

97.2

73,6

41.8

25.6

16.6

11.7

100.0

100,0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

33.7

49.6

*1O.6

35.6

57.0

8.4

52.2

6.4

38.9

62.8

69.1

73.3

74.6

55.5

7.2

42.5

66.3

73.0

76.1

78.3

30.5

*2.5

19.9

39.8

43.1

47.9

48.3

52.3

42.0

67.2

52.2

36.3

72.4

12.4

“0.7

6.5

13.0

18.5

19.8

20.4

11,5

“0.8

6.7

2.1

6.7

8.4

7.8

8.8

0.3

6.5

18.4

31.2

35.5

40.0

14.1

8.4

22.3

12.2

6.7

19.2

0.8

“0.3

“0.3

“0.8

*1.6

*2.3

0.6

“0.3

“0.2

“0.6

‘1.4

*1.6

1.4

“0.2

*1.1

*1.5

“3.4

“4.7

“0.8

*O,1

*1.9

0.8

“0.2

1.4

7.9

‘0.3

3.5

7.7

11.9

14.5

12.7

8.0

“0.3

4.0

7.8

2.2

4.2

2.4

7.7

3.7

‘0.4

2.6

5.0

5.8

3.8

5.4

2.9

‘0.5

“2.3

4.1

3.9

*2.8

*3.8

9.7

“0.3

*1,3

7.7

10,6

19.4

16.3

7,1

“2.8

13.4

8.0

4.0

13.0

5.0

9.6

19.1

12.7

19.0

6.1

*5.5

“7.0

3.5

2.5

4.8

llncludes white, black, and other races.

32
Table 12. Number of women 15–44 years of age and percent distribution by meritel status, eccording to salectad characteristics:

United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United Statea. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimatea of

sampltng variability, and definitions cf terms]

Marital status

Number of Formerly married

women in Never Currently

Characteristic of respondent thousands Total married married Totai Widowed Divorced Separated

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Lwingwith both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lwing with one or neithar parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Poverty level income

Less than 150 percent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

150percent or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

300percent or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13yeers ormore . . . . . . . . . .. c.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . .’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54,099

40,849

13,250

18,846

23,982

11,271

20,505

19,381

14,214

13,843

40,256

23,411

13,465

20,257

20,377

31,298

17,377

11,851

13,981

17,308

10,958

31,685

22,414

Percent distribution

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

35.4

34.2

39.3

25.2

37.7

47.5

27.1

35.6

47.3

47.0

31.5

29.8

51.2

26.7

33.7

31.6

40.9

41.9

35.1

32.7

33.1

34.9

36.2

52.2

54.8

44.0

58.6

51.5

42.8

56.6

54.4

42.8

33.1

58.8

63.0

36.0

60,2

54.9

55.6

48.4

46.8

54.6

54.6

51.1

49.5

56.0

12.4

11.0

16.6

16.2

10.7

9.6

16.3

10.1

9.9

20.0

9.8

7.3

12.9

13.1

11.4

12.8

10.7

11.2

10.3

12,7

15.8

15.6

7.9

0.8

0.7

“0.9

*1.2

‘0.6

“0.5

*1.0

‘0.7

80.6

*1.3

0.6

“0.4

*0.8

“0.9

“0.6

0.9

“0.6

“0.5

“0.7

●1.O

“0.7

0.8

“0.7

7.9

7.0

10.8

9.4

7.1

6.9

10.2

6.6

6.3

11.0

6.8

4.9

6.8

8.4

8.1

7.9

6.8

6.7

7.6

6.8

11.3

10.8

3.7

3.7

3.3

5.0

5.5

3.1

2.2

5.2

2.8

3.0

7.7

2.4

1.9

5.3

3.8

2.7

4.0

3.3

4.0

2.1

4.8

3.8

3.9

3.5

1Includes Protestant, Cathohc, other rel!gmna, and no rellgion.

33
Table 13. Number of ever married women 15-44 yeers of age and percent distribution by number of marriages and current marital status,

according to race, Hispanic origin, and age: United States, 1982

[Statistics are based on a sample of the household population of the contermlno.s United Ststes. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and de flnmona of terms]

Current marital status and number of marriages

Number of

ever All women

Widowed, separated,

Currently married or divorced

married

Race, Hispanic origin, women in 1 2 1 2 1 2

and age thousands TotalJ marriaga marriages Totall marriaga marriages Totall marriage marriages

All races and origlnsz

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years..,....,,.,..

25-29 years .,, . . . . . . . . . .

30–34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years.. .

RACE

White

15–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years .,, . . . . . . . . . .

Btack

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35–39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hispanic

15-44 years, . . . . . . . . . . . .

15–29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15–29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34,935

5,500

7,778

8,218

7,349

6,090

30,419

4,975

6,719

7,099

6,326

5,300

3,440

427

777

851

737

648

2,914

1,310

1,603

32,021

11,968

20,054

Percent distribution

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

83.6

94.1

85.0

80.8

79.7

81.0

83.4

93.7

84.4

80.0

79.5

81.8

85.2

96.6

93.2

88.0

77.6

72.8

85.9

91.6

81.2

83.4

88.4

80.4

14,1

*5.4

13.8

17.3

17.0

14.3

14.3

*5.6

14.4

18.1

17.1

13.5

13.5

*3.4

*6.6

10.7

21.1

23.6

*11.7

“8.4

“1 4.4

14.3

10.5

16.5

80.8

86.2

82.8

78.9

78.7

78.5

82.8

86.9

84.6

81.3

80.6

81.5

61.9

76.7

68.4

58.0

57.5

54.7

78.8

83.3

75.1

BI.O

84.3

79.0

68.3

81.4

70.2

63.8

63.1

66.3

69.9

81.9

71.0

65.5

64.5

69.7

52.1

73.6

63,3

49.7

43,1

37.7

68.2

75.9

61.9

68.3

74.7

64.4

10.8

*4.4

11.5

13.8

12.6

9.8

11.2

*4.6

12.4

14.4

13.1

9.2

9.2

*3.1

*4.9

*7.4

13,3

16.0

*8.6

“7.5

*9.5

11.1

8.7

12.5

19.2

13.8

17.2

21.1

21.3

21.5

17.2

13.1

15.4

18.7

19,4

18.5

38.1

23.3

31.6

42.0

42.5

45.3

21.2

*16.7

24.9

19.0

15.7

21.0

15.4

12.6

14.8

17.0

16.5

14.8

13.5

11.8

13.4

14.5

15,0

12.1

33.1

23.0

29.9

38.4

34.6

35.1

17.7

“1 5.7

*1 9.3

15.1

13.7

16.0

3.2

*lo

*2.3

*3.5

“4.3

*4.6

3.1

“1.0

*2.1

*3.7

‘4.0

*4.3

4.3

‘0.3

*1,7

“3.3

*7.8

*7.6

*3.1

“0.9

*4.9

3.2

*1.9

4.0

Ilncludes women married 3 times or more, not shown separately,

‘Includes whtte, black, and other races.

34
Table 14. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of age and percent distribution by number of marriages and current marital status,

according to selactad characteristics: United Statas, 1982

[Statmtlcs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Current maritaf status and numbar of marriages

Number of Widowed, separated,

ever All woman Currently married or divorced

married

worn en in 1 2 1 2 1 2

Characteristic of respondent thousands Totall marriage marriages Tota17 marriage marriages Totali marriage marriages

Percent distribution

Allwomenz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0

Living arrangements

at age 14 yaars

Lwing with both parents. .

Living with one or neither

parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s

mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s

father’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 yeara . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13yeara or more . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

ln labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . .

34,935

26,896

8,039

14,092

14,929

5,914

14,958

12,484

7,493

6,576

14,844

13,515

21,414

10,276

6,881

9,078

11,642

7,334

20,625

14,310

83.6 14.1 80.8 68.3 10.8 19.2 15.4 3.2

13.0 83.3 71.8 10.1 16.7

17.5 72.6 56.4 13.5 27.4

13.1

22.9

3.0

“4.0

84.9

79.3

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

81.0

64.9

86.7

16.0 78.4 63.5 12.5 21.6

13.4 82.8 71.2 10.3 17.2

11.3 81.6 72.4 8.2 18.4

17.5

13.7

14.3

3.4

3.1

*3.1

77.6

84.4

81.2

64.1 11.5

72.3 10.5

69.9 10.2

22.4

15.6

18.8

18.3 3.3

12.1 “3.0

14.8 *3.5

100.0

100.0

100.0

82.4 14.7

84.4 13.5

84.7 13.7

56.1 13.6

69.7 10.9

72.6 9.4

26.3

17.9

17.2

21.9 *3.5

14.2 3.2

13.5 *3.1

100.0

100.0

100.0

78.0 17.1

83.9 14.1

86.0 12.5

73.7

82.1

82.8

14.8 3.2

14.5 *3.2

100.0

100.0

80.7 16.7

88.7 9.9

81.3

81.9

65.9 13.5

74.2 6.7

18.7

18.1

80.6

84.1

81.2

76.3

73.6 6.7

73.0 9.7

65.9 13.1

61.2 12.7

19.4

15.9

18.8

23.7

17.5 *1.7

12.7 *2.6

15.4 *3.1

16.6 *5.6

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

91.1 8.4

85.6 12,3

81.3 16.1

77.8 18,3

100.0

100.0

82.2 15.6

85.7 11.9

76.1

87.7

63.4 11.2

75.3 10.3

23.9

12.3

18.8 4.3

10.4 *1.6

1Includes women married 3 times or more, not shown separately.

21ncludea Protestant, Catholic, other religions, and no religion.

35
Table 15. Number of unmarried women 15-44 yeers of age and percent informally married, by marital status, race, Hispanic origin, and age:

United States, 1982

[Statwlcs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous Un,ted States. See appendixes for discussion of the ssmple design, estimates of

sampling variability, and defmmons of terms]

Widowed, Widowed,

Never divorced, or Never divorced, or

Race, Hispanic origin, and age Total married separated Total married separated

All races and orlginsz Number in thousands Percent informally married

15–44 years ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,868

15-19 years, , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,909

20-24 y2ars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,499

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,821

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,899

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,110

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,629

19,164 6,704

8,839 70

5,811 688

2,485 1,336

1,163 1,736

544 1,566

322 1,307

6.4 5.4 9.4

“1.8 *1.8

5.9 5.4 *1O.9

15.6 16.5 *1 3.8

11.1 “1 0.6 “11.5

*6.9 *3.2 *8.2

*2.8 “0.5 “3.4

RACE

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,172

15–24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,347

25-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,027

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,798

Black

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,855

15-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,560

25–34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,454

35-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

Hispanic origin

Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,097

Non- Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,771

14,948

11,696

2,666

586

5,224 7.2 6.0

652 3.9 3.5

2,361 16.3 17.9

2,212 “5.3 “1.7

10.6

“11.0

*14.5

*6.3

3,545 1,310

2,461 99

851 603

233 607

1,479 618

17,685 6,086

4.0 3.5 5.4

*2.5 *2.5 *3.3

6.8 *6.6 “7.0

*4.1 *3.9 *4. 1

15.7 14.6 *I 8.4

5.6 4.6 8.5

1Includes widowed, dtvorced, separated, and never reamed women.

‘Includes white, black, and other racea.

36
Table 16. Number of unmarried women 15-44 years of age and percent informally merried, by selected characteristics: United States, 1982

[Statistics sre based on a ssmple of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Widowed, Widowed,

Never divorced, or Never divorced, or

Characteristic of respondent Total married separated Total married separated

Number in thousands Percent informally marriad

Allwomenz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living with oneor neither parent.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13 years or more. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s fathefs education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Poverty level income

Less than 150 percent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

150percent or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

300percent or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In la borforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notln labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25,868

18,452

7,415

7,797

11,627

6,443

8,893

8,846

8,128

9,263

16,604

8,673

8,621

8,066

9,181

13,889

8,965

6,303

6,349

7,856

5,360

15,997

9,871

19,164

13,953

5,211

4,754

9,053

5,357

5,547

6,897

6,720

6,501

12,663

6,966

6,889

5,414

6,861

9,884

7,101

4,970

4,903

5,666

3,624

11,061

8,103

6,704

4,499

2,205

3,044

2,574

1,086

3,346

1,950

1,408

2,762

3,941

1.707

1,732

2,652

2,319

4,005

1,864

1,332

1,446

2,190

1,736

4,936

1,767

6.4

5.6

8.3

10.2

4.9

4.6

8.7

5.5

5.0

4.0

7.8

9.9

5.5

5.9

7.7

4.8

7.0

5.1

7.6

4.7

9.2

7.7

4.4

5.4

4.6

7.3

10.1

3.6

4.2

7.3

4.6

4.5

3.5

6.3

7.8

3.7

5.6

6.8

4.0

5.2

4.1

6.3

3.7

8.3

6.9

3.3

9.4

‘8.7

*1 0.8

*1 0.3

*9.5

*6.7

*10.9

*8.4

“7.4

“5.0

12.5

*1 8.8

*1 2.7

*6.6

“10.2

“7.0

*1 3.9

*8.6

*11.8

“7.2

*1O.9

9.5

*9.3

1Includes widowed, dworced, separated, and never married women.

+ncludes protestant, Catholic, other religions, and no reli9i0n.

37
Table 17. Numbar of women 15–44 yeara of age who ever had sexual intercouraa, percent who had sexual intarcoursa in the last 3 months,

and percant distribution of woman who had intercourse in the last 3 months by frequency of sexual intercourse, according to marital statua and

aga: United States, 1982

[Statlst!cs are based on a sample of the household population of the contermmous United States. See appendixes for diacuasion of the sample design, estimaltas of

sampltng var!abll!ty, and de flnitiona of terms]

Percent Frequency of intercourse

who hed

Number of intercourse 2-3 Several

women in in the last Once a times a Once a times a Every

Marital status and age thousands 3 months Total month month week week day

All marital statuses

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years,......,.....,,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20–24 years,......,.....,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 vears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

O-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Currently married

5-44 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5–19 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

O-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40–44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Not currently married

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25–29 years, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46,684 89.7

4,467 85.2

9,080 88.4

9,929 92.3

9,189 91,6

7,725 90.7

6,293 87.1

28,231 99.5

612 100.0

4,130 99.8

6,442 99.7

6,482 99.7

5,783 99.7

4,783 98.2

18,452 74.9

3,855 82.8

4,950 78.8

3,487 78.6

2,707 72,1

1,943 64.0

1,510 51.7

Percent distribution

100.0 37.7 5.4

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

8.2

17.5

9.4

5.7

6.9

6.1

8.5

4.3

*6.3

*3.1

*2.9

5.3

4.6

5.1

16.1

19.7

16.0

12.4

12.1

“12.9

29.3

20.5

27.0

19.9

17.4

19.4

21,2

22.6

17.8

*13.9

12.4

16.0

16.5

21.4

23.1

25.8

29.5

27.8

20.5

29.2

20.3

*19.1

28.2

24.1

27.1

23.6

29.8

31.6

33.7

30.5

*1 7.9

28,4

26.4

31.4

31.9

36.3

23.6

25.3

25.7

16.9

24.3

30.0

*18.1

24.3

35.4

47.2

39.5

37.9

31.7

42.0

43.6

43.6

49.5

42.6

39.2

32.6

29.1

20.6

26.7

41.8

29.2

31.8

26.1

7.1

8.2

6.1

4.4

“3.3

*3.5

5.4

*1 8.2

12.5

5.2

4.1

*2.9

*2.8

5.5

*4.9

*3.7

8.4

*5.3

“5.0

*7.4

38
Table 18. Number of women 15-44 years of age who ever had sexual intercourse, percent who hed sexual intercourse in the last 3 months,

and percent distribution of women who had intercourse in tha last 3 months by fraquency of saxual intercourse, according to rata, Hispanic

origin, and aga: United States, 1982

[Statistics are baaed on a sample of the household population of the contermmous United States. Sea appendixes for dmcusslon of the sample design, estlmatea of

sampling variability, and definitions of terms]

Percent Frequency of intercourse

who had

Number of intercourse Once a 2–3 Several

women in in the last month times a Once a times a Every

Race, Hispanic origin, and age thousands 3 months Total or less month week week day

All races and origins!

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . .. d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

RACE

White

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 yeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black

15-44 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-19 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-24 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-34 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35-39 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Hispanic

15-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-H ispsnic

15-44 yeara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-29 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30-44 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46,684

4,467

9,080

9,929

9,189

7,725

6,293

39,031

3,512

7,480

8,313

7,771

6,535

5,419

6,263

835

1,372

1,316

1,130

879

732

3.713

1,966

1,747

42,970

21,510

21,461

89.7

85.2

88.4

92.3

91.6

90.7

87.1

89.9

84.2

88.3

93.0

92.0

90.7

87.3

89.0

91.0

87.6

89.3

88.9

88.8

89.3

89.1

92.8

85.0

89.8

89.1

90.5

Percent distrlbutron

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0 14.2

100.0 30.6

100.0 10.9

100.0 9.1

100.0 11.8

100.0 10.8

100.0 18.3

100.0 9.0

100.0 *9.9

100.0 “7.9

100.0 8.1

100.0 9.2

100.0 7.0

8.2

17.5

9.4

5.7

6.9

6.1

8.5

7.3

14.3

9.1

5.2

6.4

5.6

7.4

20.5

27.0

19.9

17.4

19.4

21.2

22.6

19.4

26.0

17.8

16.3

18.5

20.6

22.8

27.6

30.7

31.9

27.2

25.9

24.6

22.7

17.7

13.7

22.6

20.7

20.7

20.7

28.2

24.1

27.1

23.6

29.8

31.6

33.7

28.8

24.9

27.4

24.5

30.6

31.8

33.8

23.2

21.3

23.6

19.4

21.9

24.4

31.6

29.7

27.7

32.1

28.1

24.8

31.4

37.7

24.3

35.4

47.2

39.5

37.9

31.7

38.8

26.7

36.9

48.0

40.0

38.5

32.5

30.6

14.9

28.2

37.7

35.7

37.4

24.9

39.3

42.4

35.4

37.6

38.2

37.0

5.4

7.1

8.2

6.1

4.4

*3.3

*3.5

5.6

8.1

8.8

5.9

4.5

*3.5

*3.5

4.4

*2.5

*5.2

6.6

*4.8

*2.8

*2.6

*4.3

*6.3

“2.0

5.5

7.2

3.9

1Includes white, black, snd othar races,

39
Table 19, Number of women 15-44 years of agewhoaver had sexual intercourse, percant who had sexual intercourse inthelast3 months,

andpercent distribution of woman who had intercourse in the last3 months by fraquancyof sexual intercourse, according to selected

characteristics: Unitad States, 1982

[Statlst!cs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sampla dasign, estimates of

sampl!ng varlabrlity, and definitions of terms]

Percent Frequency of intercourse

who had

Number of intercourse Once a 2-3 Several

worn en in in the last month time a Once a times a Every

Characteristic of respondent thousands 3 months Total or less month week week day

Allwomenl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Liwng arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lwingwith oneor neither parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s educat!on

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years..,,,....,,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years. .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years..,,,....,,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years..,.......,,......,,. . . .../.............,,,

13yesrs or more. . .,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant, , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast. ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In la bor force,......,,...,..

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46,684

34,921

11,763

17,466

20,217

9,001

18,778

16,469

11,437

9,668

18,557

18,459

27,458

14,395

9,873

12,009

15,220

9,581

27,967

18,717

89.7

90.0

88.9

90.4

90.6

86,5

90.6

90.4

87.4

88.4

90.5

89.7

90.6

87.9

88.0

91.5

90,7

87.8

88.4

91.7

Percent distribution

----- -

1Uu.u

100.0

100.0

00,0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00,0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00,0

00.0

00.0

00.0

00.0

100.0

100.0

8.2

7.2

10.9

7.6

8.1

9.4

9.0

6.6

9.0

11.8

7,2

7.3

8,0

8,3

9.0

7.6

8.3

7.8

7.9

8.6

20.5

20.1

21.6

21.3

18.1

24.3

19.6

19.6

23.2

22.7

19.8

19.9

20.2

21.1

23.9

18.5

18.7

22.3

19.7

21.5

28.2

28.7

26.8

28.9

29.0

24.9

29.2

30.0

23.9

27.1

29.9

27.1

27.8

29.8

27.2

29.9

29.1

25.6

28,8

27.4

37.7

39.2

33.3

36.2

39.3

37.0

36.2

38.1

39.8

31.7

37.2

41.4

37.9

36.6

36.4

37.8

38.7

37.5

38.6

36.5

5.4

4.8

7.3

6.0

5.4

4.4

6.0

5.6

4.1

6.6

5.9

4.4

6.1

4.1

3.5

6.2

5.2

6.8

5.0

6.1

Ilncludes Protestant, Cstholic, other rel!glons, and no rel!g!on

40
Table 20. Numberof ever married woman 15-44 yearaof aga and cumulative percent whose firatmarriage waa dissolved byaeparation,

divorce, or death, by exact years since first marriage, 1 race, Hispanic origin, and year of firat marriage: United States, 1~2

[Statwtrcs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

samplmg variability, and definitions of terms]

Number of Exact years sinca first marriaga

evar married

Race, Hispanic origin, and women in 7 2 3 4 5 10 75 All

year of first marriage thousands year years yaars years yaars years years years

All races and originsz Cumulative percent

AlIyears3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34,935 3.9 7.8 11.8 14.3 16.4 25.5 29.7 31.7

1975 -79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,376 *4.5 10.3 15.8 20.1 21.5 23.2 23.2

1970 -74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,325 *3.5 8.1 13.4 16.8 19.6 33.5 34:0 34.0

1965 -69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,338 *3.8 7.1 11.1 12.9 15.9 29.8 39.8 40.7

1960 -64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,586 *3.6 ‘6.0 7.7 9.4 10.8 23.0 31.5 37.6

White

All years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,419 3.6 7.4 11.4 13.7 15,4 24.1 28.1 30.1

1975 -79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,509 *4.4 10.3 75.7 19.8 27.2 22.5 22.5

1970- 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,232 *3.3 7.8 13.1 16.0 18.7 32.0 32;4 32.4

1965 -69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,403 *3.5 6.7 10.6 12.3 14.4 28.4 38.4 39.4

1960-64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,864 “2.7 “5.1 *6.7 *8.3 9.1 20.3 28.2 34.5

Black

All years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,440 7.2 12.4 16.8 20.5 26.0 39.1 45.2 47.9

1975 -79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 *6.7 12.1 18.7 25.2 27.5 30.9 30.9

1970 -74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 *5.5 11.9 17.6 22.5 27.4 46.4 48:3 48.3

1965 -69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 *7.7 12.9 16.9 19.2 30.5 46.1 57.2 57.5

1960-64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 *9.6 13.5 16.8 19.0 23.7 45.6 59.0 63.9

Hispanic origin

Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,914 “4.2 *9.8 14.4 16.3 18.3 26.3 30.1 31.B

Non- Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32,021 3.9 7.6 11.5 14.1 16.2 25.4 29.7 31.7

I Date of separatmn for marriages ending in divorce or separation; data of death for marriages ending in daath.

‘Includes whne, black, and other races.

31ncludes ftrst marr!ages dissolved before 1960 and between 1980 and interview.

41
Table 21. Number of ever married women 15-44 years of aga and cumulative parcant whose first marriage was dissolvad by aaparation,

divorce, or death, by axact years since first marriage,l and selectad characteristics: United Ststas, 1982

[Stat,st@ are based on a sample of the household population of the contermrnous Un(ted States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

ssmpling vanabillty, and definitions of terms]

Number of Exact years since first marriage

ever married

woman in 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 All

Characteristic of respondent thousands year years years years years years years years

Cumulative percent

Allwomenz ..,......,.,...,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ltving arrangements at age 14 years

Lwlngwlth both parents .,..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lwingwith oneornelther parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years...,,...,,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years Or more. .,, .,..,,... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years . ., ...,..,, . . . . . . . . . .

12 years.,,,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,., .,,.

13years or more., ,,, .,,,......,,,.,...,,,.. . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years.,,. ,, ...,,,,,. .,, ..,....,,,,...,,, . . . . .

13years ormOre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reilglon

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West. , .,..,......,,.....,,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force statua

In labor force . ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Age at first marriage

19years or less.,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20vears or more.....,..,..,.. . . . . . . . . . . .

34,935

26,896

8,039

14,092

14,929

5,914

14,958

12,484

7,493

6,576

14,844

13,515

21,414

10,276

6,881

9,078

11,642

7,334

20,645

14,310

17,073

17,862

3.9

3.4

5.9

4.7

3.1

“4.3

4.1

3.9

*3.6

*6.2

3.6

3.2

4,3

*2,5

*3.4

*2.3

4.7

“5.1

4.3

3.4

4.5

3.4

7.8

6.8

11.3

9.2

6.7

7.3

9.0

7.1

6.5

12.8

6.8

6,5

8.3

6.5

6.2

6.0

8.6

10.4

8.5

6.8

9,1

6.5

11.8

10.4

16.1

13.0

11.5

9.5

13.0

10.7

10.9

16.7

10,8

10.4

12.2

10.4

8.9

9.5

12.0

16.8

13.3

9.5

14,3

9.4

14,3

12.5

20.2

15.8

14.0

11,6

15.9

13.4

12.6

20,4

13.4

12.3

14.7

12,4

11.5

11.0

15.3

19.5

15.9

12,0

17.8

11.0

16.4

14.2

23.5

18.5

15.7

12.9

18.3

15.4

14.3

23.3

15.1

14.4

16.7

14.6

13.3

13.5

17.2

21.4

18.4

13.4

20.3

12.6

25.5

22.5

35.6

28.2

24.1

22.5

28.1

22.7

24.9

34.6

24.1

22.5

27.2

21.5

20.7

21.8

26.7

32.6

28.3

21.4

32.2

19.0

29.7

26.3

40.9

33.6

27.3

26.4

33.3

25.!3

28.7

41.2

27.7

26.3

31.6

24.9

24.4

25.2

31,6

37.1

34.0

23.5

37.9

21.8

31.7

28,2

43.6

36.5

28.8

27.6

35.9

27.7

30.1

43.9

30.3

27.4

34.1

25.8

26.4

27,0

34.1

38.8

36,6

24.7

40.9

22.9

lDate of separation for marriages end]ng ]n dworce or separation; date of death for marriages ending In death,

‘Includas Protestant, Catholic, other rellgtons, and no reljgton,

42
Table 22. Number of women 15-44 yeers of ege whose first merriage wes dissolved by divorce or deeth, and cumulative percent who

remerried, byexect years since dissolution, 1 race, Hispanic origin, andyeer first merriege dissolved: United States, 1982

[StatMlcs are based on a sample of the household population of the conterminous United States. See appendixes for discussion of the sample design, estimates of

samphng variability, and de finitiona of terma]

Number of Years since dissolution of first merriage

women in thousands

Race, Hispanic origin. and year whose first marriage ? 2 3 4 5 All

dissolved first marriage dissolved year years yeara years years years

All races and oriainsz Cumulative Dercent

Allyaars3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,457 7.0

1975 -79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,352 *6.4

1970- 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,653 *8.7

1965 -69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,316 *6.7

1960 -64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607 *4.8

White

All years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,145 7.5

7975–79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,965 *6.6

1970- 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,277 *1 0.0

1965 -69, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,111 *5.9

1960-64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 *4.5

Black

All years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,055 *4.3

1975 -79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 *5.9

7970 -74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 “0.4

1965 -69. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 “6.7

1960 -64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 *6.4

Hispanic origin

Hispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701 “3.4

Non-H ispanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,756 7,3

24.0

22.8

21.3

32.9

“32.0

25.6

24.5

23.0

34.9

*38.7

11.0

*9.1

*7.5

*1 9.2

*9.5

*1 8.3

24.4

35.7

35.5

35.0

45.6

42.7

37.6

36.5

37.8

49.7

*48.5

18.7

*17.3

*1 6.3

“20.5

*24.4

*31 .6

36.1

43.3

43.9

41.8

54.4

58.1

45.5

45.9

44.1

58.8

66.9

24.3

*19.1

24,0

28.3

“32.7

“38.0

43.7

49.4

47.9

51.4

59.4

71.7

51.6

49.8

54.0

63.2

82.7

30.3

24.2

29.6

38.1

41.8

40.9

50.0

60.5

53.2

68.8

80.8

89.4

61.9

54.9

71.0

83.2

95.3

48.4

30.2

51.1

70.3

68.7

58.7

60.6

‘ Date of divorce for marriages ending in divorce; date of death for marriages ending in death.

‘Includes white, black, and other races.

31ncludes first msrnages dissolved before 1960 and between 1980 and interview.

43
Tabla 23. Number of women 15-44 years of age whose first marriaga waa disaolvad by divorce or daath and cumulative parcant who)

remarried, by axact yeara since diaaolutionl and selected characteristics: United States, 1982

[Statisticsarebased on a sample of the household population of the contermlnous United States. See appendixes for discussmn of the sample design, estimates of

sampl!ng vanabtl!ty, and deflnmons of terms]

Years since dissolution of first marriage

Number of

worn en in 1 2 3 4 5

Characteristic of respondent

All

thousands year years years years years years

Cumulative percent

Allwomenz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living arrangements at age 14 years

Living with both parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lwtngwith oneor neither parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s mother’s education

Less than 12 years,.......,,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years ormOre, , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respondent’s father’s education

Less than 12 years.,,......,,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years ., .,, ., .,, ,,, .,.,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more.,,.,.,.,.,.. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Less than 12 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 years . ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13years or more, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Religion

Protestant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Region

Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Midwest ...,......,......,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status

In labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notin labor force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Age at dissolution of marriage

24years or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25years or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9.457

6,503

2.954

4,323

3,689

1,446

4,518

2,985

1,954

2,309

3,945

3,204

6,336

2,169

1,338

2,237

3,294

2,538

6,580

2,877

6,062

4,405

7.0

6.7

*7.7

*7.5

*6.2

“7.5

*6.6

*7,4

“7,2

“7.0

*8.2

*5.5

8.1

“5.1

*4.8

“7.5

“8.8

*5.4

*5.7

*1 0.0

*7.2

*6.7

24.0

25.0

21.6

26.4

22.1

*2 I .4

25.8

24.5

18.9

26.9

25.4

20.0

26.9

19.2

*1 6.8

24.4

27.9

22.3

20.8

31.1

27.6

19.8

35.7

38.1

30.5

37.3

35.1

32,6

36,5

38.8

29.3

39.2

35.5

33.5

38.3

33,3

“20.9

37.2

38.7

38.7

32.5

43.2

40.3

30.5

43.3

45.5

38.4

44.4

43.1

40.4

44.5

44,4

38.9

47.3

44,2

39.3

46.8

37.8

27.3

43.6

46.8

47.2

40.2

50.5

51.0

34.4

49.4

52.2

43.0

51.3

49.2

44.0

49.6

50.9

46.5

51.8

50.1

46.7

53.2

42.4

32.0

47.0

54.0

55.0

45,2

58,9

58.4

39.0

60.5

62.4

56.3

62.1

61.1

54.4

58.2

65.1

58.7

62,6

60.6

58.9

65.2

53.5

44,1

58.3

66.0

64.3

55.8

71.2

72,5

46,7

lDate of divorce for marriages endfng in divorce; date of death for mamages ending in death.

‘Includes Protestant, Catholic, other religlons, and no religion.

44
Appendix

Contents

I. Technical notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Statistical design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Measurementprocess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Datareduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Reliabilityofestimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Estimationofstandard errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Testingdifferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Nonsamplingerror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Interviewnonresponse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Item nonresponse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

II. Definitions ofterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Marriage, first intercourse, and related terms.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Demographic terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Listofappendix tables

I. Estimates ofparameters Aand Bfor relative standard errorcurves, byage, race, andmarital status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

II. Approximaterelative standarderrors and standard errors forestimatednumbers ofwomen ofallraces combined 1982

National Survey ofFamilyGrowth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

III. Approximate standarderrors forestimated percents expressedinpercentagepoints forwomenofaUraces: 1982National

Survey ofFamily Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

45
Appendix 1

Technical notes

Background Statistical design

This report is one of a series based on the National Survey

of Family Growth (NSFG) conducted by the National Center

for Health Statistics (NCHS). The NSFG was designed to

provide data on fertility, family planning, and aspects of maternal and child health that are closely related to childbearing.

The NSFG is a periodic survey based on personal interviews with a nationwide sample of women. The NSFG has

been conducted three times, in 1973, 1976, and 1982. The

present report is based on Cycle III of the NSFG. A detailed

report on Cycle III is contained in “National Survey of Family

Growth, Cycle III: Sample Design, Weighting, and Estimation

Procedures,” Series 2, No. 98, of Vital and Health Statistics.27

A detailed description of the methods and procedures used in

Cycle I can be found in “National Survey of Family Growth,

Cycle I: Sample Design, Estimation Procedures, and Variance

Estimation,” Series 2, No. 76, of Vital and Health Statistics.2s

A detailed description of the methods and procedures of Cycle

II can be found in “National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle

II: Sample Design, Estimation Procedures, and Variance Estimation,” Series 2, No. 87, of Vital and Health Statistics.29

This appendix presents a summary of the more important technical aspects of the 1982 NSFG.

Fieldwork for Cycle III was carried out under a contract

with NCHS by Westat, Inc., between August of 1982 and

February of 1983. For the first time, the sample represented all

women 15–44 years of age, regardless of marital status, including never married women in the noninstitutional population of

the conterminous United States. Women living in group quarters, such as college dormitories, were included in Cycle III.

Interviews were conducted with 7,969 wome~ 3,201 were

black, 4,577 were white, and 191 were of other races.

Interviews were conducted by trained female interviewers

in the respondents’ homes, and they lasted an average of 1

hour. The interview focused on a woman’s pregnancy history,

her use of contraceptives in each pregnancy interval, her physical ability to bear children, her expectations of bearing children

in the future, her use of family planning and infertility services,

her marital history, her labor force participation, and on a wide

range of social, economic, and demographic characteristics.

NOTE: A list of references follows the text.

46

The NSFG is based on a multistage area probability sample.

Black households and households with resident teenage women

were sampled at higher rates than other households so that

reliable estimates of statistics could be presented separately for

black and teenage women. In addition, the sample was designed

to provide tabulations for each of the four major geographic

regions of the United States.

The first stage of the sample design consisted of drawing a

sample of primary sampling units (PSU’S). A PSU consisted of

a county, a small group of contiguous counties, or a standard

metropolitan statistical area as defined by the U.S. Elureau of

the Census in 1970. The second and third stages of sampling

were used to select several segments (clusters of 15 to about 60

dwelling units) within each PSU. A systematic sample of dwelling units was then selected from each segnent. Each sample

dwelling unit was visited by an interviewer who listed nll household members. The interviewer then consulted a computergenerated sampling table to determine which woman, if any,

should be interviewed.

The statistics in this report are estimates for the national

population, and they were computed by multiplying each sample

case by the number of women she represented in the population.

The multipliers, or final weights, ranged from under 500 to

over 50,000 and averaged about 7,000.They were derived by

using three basic steps:

● Injlation by the reciprocal of theprobability of selection—

The probability of selection is the product of the probabilities of selection of the PSU, segment, household, and

sample person within the household.

● Nonresponse adjustment—The weighted estimates were

ratio adjusted for nonresponse by a multiplication of two

factors. The first factor adjusted for nonresponse to the

screener by imputing the characteristics of women in responding households to women in nonresponding households in the same PSU and stratum. The second factor

adjusted for nonresponse to the interview by imputing the

characteristics of responding women to nonresponding

women in the same age-race-marital status category and

PSU. Response to the screener was 95.1 percenc the response to the interview as 83.5 percent, yielding a combined response rate of approximately 79.4 percent.

● PoststratlYcation by marital status, age, and race—The

estimates were ratio adjusted within each of 24 age-race-
marital status categories to independent estimates of the

population of women 15–44. The independent estimates

were derived from the U.S. Bureau of the Census Current

Population Surveys.

The effect of the ratic-estimating process was to make the

sample more closely representative of the noninstitutional population of women 15–44 years of age in the conterminous

United States. The final poststratification reduced the sample

variance of the estimates for most statistics.

All figures were individually rounded aggregate figures

(numbers) were rounded to the nearest thousand. Aggregate

numbers and percents may not sum to the total because of the

rounding.

Measurement process

Field operations for Cycle III were carried out by Westatj

Inc., under contract with NCHS; these operations included

pretesting the interview schedule, selecting the sample, interviewing respondents, and performing specified quality control

checks. Interviewers, all of whom were female, were trained for

1 week prior to field work. The first five interview schedules

done by each interviewer were reviewed after a high level of

quality was achieved by an interviewer, this review was reduced

to a sample of questionnaires, unless an unacceptable level of

error was found. A 10-percent sample of respondents was recontacted by telephone to verify that the interview had taken

place and that certain key items were accurately recorded.

Two forms of the questionnaire were used, one for women

15–24 years of age and one for women 25–44 years of age.

The questionnaire for women 15–24 included a few additional

items that referred to early experiences that women over 25

could not be expected to remember accurately.

Data reduction

The responses of each woman to the interview questions

were translated into predetermined numerical codes, and these

code numbers were recorded on computer tapes. The first few

questionnaires coded by each coder were checked completely

after an acceptable level of quality was reached, veritlcation of

coding was performed on a systematic sample of each coder’s

questionnaires. The data were edited by computer to identify

inconsistencies between responses, as well as code numbers

that were not allowed in the coding scheme; these errors were

corrected.

Missing data on all variables used in this report were imputed in order to provide consistent national estimates. (To

speed release of the public-use computer tape, however, not all

variables on the computer tape were imputed. ) If the level of

missing data is relatively high (more than 5 percent), this fact is

noted in the “Concepts and definitions.” Four items are so

atTected poverty level income, age (or date) of first intercourse,

and mother’s and father’s educational attainment.

Reliability of estimates

Because the statistics presented in this report are based on

a sample, they may difFer somewhat from the figures that would

have been obtained if a complete census had been taken using

the same questionnaires, instructions, interviewing personnel,

and field procedures. This chance difference between sample

results and a complete count is referred to as sampling error.

Sampling error is measured by a statistic called the standard error of estimate. The chances are about 68 out of 100 that

an estimate tlom the sample will dfier from a complete count

by less than the standard error. The chances are about 95 out

of 100 that the difference between the sample estimate and a

complete count will be less than twice the standard error. The

relative standard error of an estimate is obtained by dividing

the standard error of the estimate by the estimate itself, and it is

expressed as a percent of the estimate. Numbers and percents

that have a relative standard error that is more than 30 percent

are considered unreliable. These figures are marked with an

asterisk to caution the user, but they maybe combined to make

other types of comparisons of greater reliability.

Estimation of standard errors

Because of the complex multistage design of the NSFG

sample, conventional formulas for calculating sampling errors

are inapplicable. Standard errors were, therefore, estimated

empirically by using a technique known as balanced half-sample

replication. This technique produces highly reliable, unbiased

estimates of sampliig errors. Its application to the NSFG has

been described elsewhere.27

Because it would be prohibitively expensive to estimate

and cumbersome to publish a standard error for each percent

or other statistic by this technique, standard errors were computed for selected statistics and population subgroups that were

chosen to represent a wide variety of demographic characteristics and a wide variation in the size of the estimates themselves. Curves were then fitted to the relative standard error

estimates (ratio of the standard error to the estimate itself) for

numbers of women according to the model

RSE(N’) = (A+ ;)”2

where N’ is the number of women and A and B are the parameters whose estimates determine the shape of the curve. Separate

curves were fitted for women of all races combined, and white

women, and for black women, because a different sampling

rate was used for black women. Separate curves were fitted for

teenagers, for the same reason. The estimates of A and B are

shown in table I.

To calculate the estimated standard error or relative standard error of an aggregate or percent, the appropriate estimates

of A and B are used in the equations:

() B 1/2

RSEN= A+=

() SEW = A + f 1’2(N)

NOTE: A list of referencesfollowstie text.

47
Table 1. Estimates of parameters A and B for relative standard error

curves, by age, race, and marital status

Parameter Parameter

Age, race, and marital status A B

Women agad 15-44 years

All races and white

All marital statuses . . . . . . –0.0003935957 21306.413351

Ever married . . . . . . . . . . . . . -0.0010973290 39809.167683

Never married . . . . . . . . . . . . –0,0009351 043 17608.883330

Black

All marital statuses, ever

married, never married . . . . –0,0009086323 6346.048380

Women aged 15-l 9years

Allraces and white . . . . . . . . . . –0.001456493 13862.104404

Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . –0.003322363 4727.056926

( )

RSEP,= ~.loOx–p’ 1/2

(

SEP,= BoP’o

)

100–P’ 112

x

whereN’ =nurnberofwomen

P’ = percent

X = number of women in, the denominator of the percent

SE = standard error

RSE = relative standard error

Tables II and III show some illustrative standard errors of

aggregates and percents of women of all races from Cycle III of

the NSFG.

Testing differences

The standard error of a difference between two comparative

statistics, such as the proportion surgically sterile among white

couples compared with black couples, is approximately the

square root of the sum of the squares of the standard errors of

the statistics considered separately, or calculated by the formula,

Table 11. Approximate relative standard errora and etandard errors

for estimatad numbers of women of all races combinad: 1982

National Survey of Family Growth

Relative

Size of estimate standard error Standard error

50,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

100,000, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

500,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65.2

46.1

20,5

14.5

8.2

6.2

5.1

4.2

1.8

33,000

46,000

102,000

144,000

245,000

310,000

359,000

416,000

532,000

if

then

d= P1– P;

~d= {(~)2 ● (RsEPi)2+ (PJ)2● (RSEPi)2

where P, is the estimated percent for one group and 1< is the

estimated percent for the other group, and RSEPi and, RSEPi

are the relative standard errors of ~ and Pi , respectively. This

formula will represent the actual standard error quite accurately

for the difference between separate and uncorrelated characteristics although it is only a rough approximation in most other

cases.

A difference among comparable proportions or other statistics from two or more subgroups is considered to be statistically significant when a difference of that size or larger

would be expected by chance in less than 5 percent of repeated

samples of the same size and type if no true difference existed

in the populations sampled. Such a difference would be statistically significant at the 0.05 level. By this criterion, if the

observed dfierence or a larger one could be expected by chance

in more than 5 percent of repeated samples, then one cannot be

sui%ciently confident to conclude that a real difference exists

between the populations. When an observed difference is large

enough to be statistically significant, the true difference in the

Table ill, Approximate standard errors for estimated percents axpressed in percentage points for women of all racas: 1982 National Survey of

Family Growth

Estimated percent

2 or 5 or 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or

Base of percent 98 95 90 80 70 60 50

100,000............................. ............ .... 6.5 10.1 13.8 18,5 21.2 22.6 23.1

500,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9 4.5 6.2 8.2 9.5 10.1 10.3

1,000,000, , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.0 3.2 4.4 5.8 6.7 7.1 7.3

5,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.9 1.4 2.0 2.6 3.0 3.2 3.3

10,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.6 7.0 1.4 1.8 2.1 2.3 2.3

30,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.3

50,000,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.0

EXAMPLE OF USE OF TABLE Ill: If 30 percent of women In a apeclfic category were currently merried and the base of that percent waa 10,000,000, then the 30-percent

column and the 10,000,000 row Indicate that 1 standard error la 2.1 percentage points and 2 standard errora are twice that, or 4.2 percentage pointa. Therefore, ths

chances are 95 out of 100 that the true percent in the population was between 25.8 and 34.2 (30.0 percent plus or minus 4.2 percent). This is called a 95-percent

confidence Interval, In addition, the relatwe standard error of that 30-percent estimate is 2.1 percent divided by 30 percent, or 7.0 percent.

48
population is estimated to lie between the observed difference

plus or minus 2 standard errors of that difference in 95 out of

100 samples.

Although the 5-percent criterion is conventionally applied,

it is in a sense arbitrary depending on the purpose of the particular comparison, a different level of significance maybe more

useful. For greater confidence, one would test for significance

at the 0.01 ( l-percent) level, but if one can accept a 10-percent

chance of concluding a difference exists when there actually is

none in the population, a test of significance at the 1O-pecent

level would be appropriate.

The term “similar” means that any observed difference

between two estimates being compared is not statistically significant but terms such as “greater,” “less,” “larger,” and

“smaller” indicate that the observed differences are statistically

significant at the 0.05 level, by using a two-tailed t-test with 39

degrees of freedom. Statements about differences that are qualified in some way (e.g., by the phrases “the data suggest” or

“some evidence”) indicate that the difference is significant at

the 0.10 level but not the 0.05 level.

When a substantial difference observed is found not to be

statistically significan~ one should not conclude that no difference exists, but simply that such a difference cannot be established with 95-percent cotildence from this sample. This is

especially important in Cycle III because the number of ever

married women in thk sample is 4,651, compared with 7,970

in Cycle II—a reduction of 42 percent. This means that the

standard errors in Cycle III are larger than those in Cycle II, so

it is harder in Cycle III than in Cycle II to establish significant

differences. Lack of comment in the text about any two statistics

does not mean that the difference was tested and found not to

be significant.

The number of replicates in the balanced half-sample replication design minus one (39 in Cycle III) can reasonably be

used as an estimate of the number of degrees of freedom, although the exact value of the degrees of freedom is unknown.

Therefore, in this report, differences between sample statistics

are compared by using a two-tailed t-test with 39 degrees of

freedom.

Example: In 1982, 11.5 percent of 45,367,000 white

women were formerly married, compared with 18.8 percent of

6,985,000 black women. To test this racial difference at the

.05 level of significance, compute

18.8 –11.5 f=

{(18.8)2 ● RSE;1*,8) + (11.5)2 ● RSE2(11.5)

Relative standard errors are computed using the appropriate

values for B from table I:

RSE(ll,~) =

d

(21306.413351) ● (100 – 11.5)

(11.5) ■ (45,367,000)

= 0.060

and

d

6346.0484 ● (100 – 18.8)

‘SE(18.8) =

18.8 ● 6,985,000

= 0.063

thus

18.8 – 11.5

‘= ~(18.8)2 ● (0.063)2 +(11.5)2(0.060)2

= 5.33

The tw~tailed .95 critical value ( 1 – a) for a tstatistic with 39

degrees of freedom is 2.02. Therefore, the difference is significant at the 5 percent level.

Nonsampling error

Although sampling error affects the reliability of survey

estimates, nonsampling error may introduce bias. The results

of any survey are subject to at least four types of potential

nonsampling error interview nonresponse; nonresponse to individual questions or items within the interviem inconsistency

of responses to questions; end errors of recording, coding, and

keying by survey personnel.

To minimize nonsampling error, stringent quality control

procedures were introduced at every stage of the survey including a check on completeness of the household listing extensive

training and practice of interviewers; field editing of questionnaires; short verification interviews with a subsample of respondents; verification of coding and editing an independent

recode of a sample of questiormaires by NCHS; keypunch verification and an extensive computer “cleaning” to check for

inconsistent responses, missing data, and invalid codes. A detailed description of some of these procedures follows; others

were previously discussed.

Interview nonresponse

Interview nomesponse occurs when an interview is not

obtained. It can result from failures at any of three principal

steps: (1) failing to list all households in sample segments, (2)

failing to screen all listed households, and (3) failing to interview

an eligible woman in each screened household. A discussion of

these steps follows.

The completeness of listing cannot be tested directly because it requires an independent, accurate enumeration of the

households that should have been listed. In the NSFG, listing

completeness and accuracy were tested by the missed dwelling

unit (DU) procedure at the time of screening if the first structure in a segment was included in the sample, the whole segment

was checked to see if any structures had been missed in the

listing procesy if the first structure was a multiple-DU structure

and if the first-listed unit in the building was included in the

sample, the entire structure was checked for missed DU’S.

Of the original sample of 34,641 DU’S screened, 3,614 were

found vacant or not DU’S. Of the 31,027 occupied DU’S, 4.9

49
percent were not screened successfully. Screening was completed in 29,511 households; 9,964 of these contained eligible

respondents who were selected for interview. Interviews were

not completed with 16.5 percent of these cases because of refhsals by respondents (8.3 percent) and by the parents of respondents under 18 years of age (1.5 percent) and because of

no contact after repeated calls (2.8 percent) or other problems

(4.0 percent).

The nonrespondent adjustment for interview nonresponse

described earlier imputes the characteristics of responding

women of the same age group, race, marital status, and geographic area to nonresponding women.

Item nonresponse

Item nonresponse may have occurred when a respondent

refused to answer a question or did not know the answer to a

question, when the question was erroneously not asked or the

answer was not recorded by the interviewer, or when the answer

could not be coded. Nonresponse to individual questions was

very low in Cycle III, as it was in Cycle II. Some examples of

item nonresponse among a total of 7,969 respondents are religion of respondent, 11 cases; and respondent’s occupation,

37 cases. The item with the most item nonresponse was family

income (from which poverty level income was derived), with

1,767 cases. Missing data were imputed for all data items in

this report. For those few items where the proportion of cases

imputed was as him this fact is noted in the appropriate section

of the definitions.

As with all survey data, responses to the NSFG are subject

to possible deliberate misreporting by the respondent. Such

misreporting cannot be detected directly, but can be detected

indirectly by the extensive computer “cleaning” and editing

procedures used in the NSFG.

50
Appendix II

Definitions of terms

Marriage, first intercourse, and

related terms

Dating—Women under age 25 years at the interview date

were classified as having dated if they provided an age in response to the question, “At what age, if ever, did you first start

dating, that is, going out with a boy?” As discussed in the text,

there is some evidence that younger women may have interpreted

the meaning of the term “dating” more broadly than older

women. Women who stated that they had never dated were so

classified. This question was not asked of women 25–44 years

of age.

Timing offirst sexual intercourse—The date of first sexual

intercourse was ascertained by the question, “Thinking back,

after your first menstrual period, when did you have sexual

intercourse for the first time-what month and year was that?”

Women who were unable to recall the exact month and year

were probed for a season and year, their age at first intercourse,

and whether or not it occurred before or after the birthday for

the given age. Approximately 8 percent of women were unable

to give either an age or a month and year of first intercourse, or

gave information that was inconsistent with other responses.

Imputed values were assigned for these women.

Age at first intercourse was calculated from month and

year for women who were able to provide the month and year

of frst intercourse. Age was classified according to the woman’s

age at her last birthday before her first intercourse. To measure

the timing of first sexual intercourse in relation to marriage,

dates of first intercourse were compared with the date of first

formal marriage. Thus, women whose frost intercourse occurred

afler initiating an informal marriage were classified as having

premarital intercourse. For women who gave ages or seasons

rather than exact dates of fust intercourse, dates were estimated

for purposes of classifying timing in relation to marriage.

Marital shztus—Persons were classified by marital status

as married, widowed, divorced, separated, or never married. In

Cycles I and II, informally married women—women who volunteered that they were sharing living quarters with their sexual

partner-were classified as currently married. These women

constituted about 2 percent of currently married respondents in

Cycle I and 3 percent in Cycle II. In Cycle III, such women

were classified according to their legal marital status.

In all cycles, women who were married but separated from

their spouse were classified as separated if the reason for the

separation was marital discord and as currently married otherwise.

Number of marriages-Number of marriages refers to the

number of times a woman has been legally married. Multiple

marriages to the same husband are individually counted.

Informal marr.”age-Women who were not currently married but living in the same household with a partner, boyfriend,

or fiance were classified as being informally married. Women

were so classfled if they were identiled as “living with a partner” in the screening interview and veritled this in the extended

interview. In addition, a few women were classified as informally married because they identified other members of their

households as their boyfriends or fiances during the screener

interview.

Frequency of sexual intercourse—Women were asked, “In

the last three months, how frequently did you have intercourse?”, and asked to choose one of the categories “A. Once

a month, “ “B. Two or three times a month,” “C. Once a wee~”

“D. Several times a week,” “E. Almost every day or every

day” from a printed card. Women were told, “Just tell me the

letter that is closest to your answer.” Women who had not had

sexual intercourse in any of the 3 months before the interview

were asked about the last 3 months in which they were having

intercourse; such women are excluded from the percent distributions shown in this report.

Man-tal dissolution—Dissolution of formal marriage includes death of the spouse, separation because of marital discord, and divorce. In the case of divorce, the date that a woman

and her husband separated is used to compute the number of

years between first marriage and dissolution.

Rernarn-age-Remarnage refers to a marriage following

dissolution by divorce or death of a previous marriage. The

number of months or years between dissolution and remarriage

refers to the length of time between divorce or death and the

beginning of the next formal marriage.

Demographic terms

Age—Age is classified by the age of the respondent at her

last birthday before the date of interview.

Race—Race refers to the race of the woman interviewed

and is reported as black, white, or other. In Cycle III, race was

classii-led according to the woman’s report of which race best

described her. In Cycles I and II, race was classified by the

observation of the interviewer. Comparisons of the results of

Cycle III using both definitions indicate that results of both

methods of classification are very similar.

51
Hispanic origin—A respondent was classified as being of

Hispanic origin if she reported that her only or principal national

origin was Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican American, Central

or South American or other Spanish. In tables where data are

presented for women by race, women of Hispanic origin are

included in the statistics for white and black women if they

were classified as such by race.

Living arrangements at age 14 years—Women were classified as living with both parents if they answered “yes” to the

question, “When you were 14, were you living with both your

own mother and your own father?” If they answered “no,”

they were classified as living with one or neither parent.

Mother’s or father’s education—Parent’s education was

classified according to the highest grade or year of regulm school

or college completed by the mother or father. Thk information

was obtained from women aged 18–44 by the question” What

was the highest grade or year of regular school or college that

your (father/mother) completed?” For women aged 15– 17,

education of mother and father was asked in a brief interview

with a parent (usually the mother). Father’s education was not

ascertained for 20.4 percent of interviewed women; mother’s

education was not ascertained for 10.0 percent of interviewed

women. Imputed values were assigned for these women. 13ecause of the high level of missing data on father’s education,

small differences by father’s education should be interpreted

with caution.

Poverty level income—The poverty index ratio was calculated by dividing the total family income by the weighted

average threshold income of families with the head of household under 65 years of age, based on the poverty levels shown

in U.S. Bureau of the Census Current Population Reports,

Series P–60, No. 140, “Money Income and Poverty Status of

Families and Persons in the United States, 1982,” table A1.30 This definition takes into account the sex of the family

head and the number of persons in the family. Total family

income includes income from all sources for all members of the

respondent’s family. For a substantial number of respondents

(22 percent), total family income was not ascertained. These

missing values were imputed using a known value of another

similar, randomly selected respondent. Because of these high

levels of missing data, small differences by poverty level income

should be interpreted with caution.

Education—The woman’s education was classified according to the highest grade or year of regular school or college

that was completed. Determination of the highest year of regular

school or college completed by the woman was based on responses to a series of questions concerning the last grade or

year of school attended and whether that grade was completed.

Religion—Women were classified by religion in response

to the question, “Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish,

or something else?” In addition to the three major religious

groupings, two other categories—other and none—were used.

Because the category of Protestant includes numerous individual denominations, these respondents were further asked to

identify the denomination to which they belonged. Those who

answered “other” to the original question and named a Protestant denomination were included as Protestant. Although

specific denominational names were obtained and recorded,

the numbers of cases for most denominations were too few to

produce reliable estimates; therefore, they were combined in

larger categories.

Region of residence—Data are classified by region of residence into the four major Census regions: Northeast, Midwest,

South, and West. Sample size greatly restricts the possibility of

meaningful analyses by social characteristics among smaller

geographic divisions. The areas comprising these four major

geographic regions are as follows:

Geographic region and

division

Northeast

New England . . . . . . . .

Middle Atlantic . . . . .

Midwest

East North Central . . .

West North Central . . .

South:

South Atlantic . . . . .

East South Central. . . .

West South Central . . .

West

Mountain . . . . . . . . . . .

Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Labor force status—A

States included

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode

[eland, Connecticut

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,

Wisconsin

Minnesota, lowa, Missouri, North

Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas

Delaware, Meryland, District of

Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South

Carolina, Georgia, Floride

Kentucky, Tennessee, Alsbama,

Mississippi

Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma,

Texas

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,

Utah, Nevada

Washington, Oregon, California

woman was categorized as being

“in the labor force” if she was working full time; pari, time; had

a job, but was not at work because of temporary illness, vacation, or a strike; or if she was unemployed, laid off, or looking

for work or if she was on maternity leave.

52
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Vital and Health Statistics

series descriptions

SERIES 1.

SERIES 2.

SERIES 3.

SERIES 4.

SERIES 5.

SERIES 10

SE RIES1l

SERIES 12

SERIES 13

Programs and Collection Procedures—Reports describing

the general programs of the National Center for Health

Statlstlcs and its offices and dwlslons and the data collection methods used. They also Include definitions and

other material necessary for understanding the data.

Data Evaluation and Methods Research—Studies of new

statlst!cal methodology Including experimental tests of

new survey methods, studies of vital statistics collection

methods, new analytical techniques, obJective evaluations

of rel!ablltty of collected data, and contr!butlons to

statistical theory. Studtes also Include comparison of

U.S methodology with those of other countnes.

Analytical and Epidemiological Studiea— Reports presenting analytical or Interpretive stud!es based on vttal

and health statistics, carrying the analysis further than

the expository types of reports in the other series.

Documents and Committee Reports— Final reports of

major committees concerned with wtal and health statistics and documents such as recommended model vttal

reglstrat!on laws and revised birth and death certificates.

Comparative International Vital and Health Statistics

Reports-Analytical and descrlptwe reports comparing

U.S. wtal and health statistics with those of other countnes.

Data From the National Health Interview Survey -Stat! stlcs on Illness, accidental !njurles, disablllty, use of hospltai, medical, dental, and other sewlces, and other

health-related topics, all based on data collected !n the

continuing national household Interwew survey.

Data From the National Health Examination Survey and

the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey—

Data from direct examlnatlon, testing, and measurement

of national samples of the civlllan nonlnstitution alized

population prowde the basis for (1) estimates of the

med[cally defined prevalence of speclflc diseases In the

United States and the dlstrtbutlons of the population

with respect to physical, physlologlcal, and psychological characteristics and (2) analysis of relationships

among the various measurements without reference to

an expllclt flnlte unwerse of persons.

Data From the Institutionalized Population Survey s-Dlscontlnued in 1975. Reports from these surveys are included In Series 13.

Data on Health Resources Utilization—Statl st!cs on the

utlllzat{on of health manpower and facilities provldtng

long-term care, ambulatory care, hospital care, and family

planmng services.

SERIES 14.

SERIES 15.

SERIES 20.

SERIES 21

SERIES 22

SERIES 23

Data on Health Resources: Manpower and Facilitiea—

StatW!cs on the numbers, geographic dwtnbution, and

characteristics of health resources includlng physicians,

denttsts, nurses, other health occupations, hospitals,

nursing homes, and outpatient facilities.

Data From Special Survey s- Stattstlcs on health and

health-related topics collected In special surveys that

are not a part of the continuing data systems of the

National Center for Health Statistics.

Data on Mortality-Various statistics on mortality other

than as included in regular annual or monthly reports.

Special analyses by cause of death, age, and other demographic variables; geographic and time sertes analyses;

and statistics on characteristics of deaths not available

from the vital records based on sample surveys of those

records.

Data on Natality, Marriage, and Divorce—Various statistics on natallty, marriage, and divorce other than as

Included )n regular annual or monthly reports. Special

analyses by demographic variables; geographic and time

series analyses; stud!es of fertlltty; and statistics on

characterlstrcs of births not available from the vital

records based on sample surveys of those records.

Data From the National Mortality and Natality Surveys—

Dlscontlnued In 1975. Reports from these sample surveys

based on vital records are Included In Series 20 and 21,

respectively.

Data From the National Survey of Family Growth—

Statistics on fertll!ty, family formation and dissolution,

family plannlng, and related maternal and Infant health

top!cs derwed from a periodic survey of a nationwide

probability sample of women 15–44 years of age.

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