And doubled again by 1988. Population will stabilize over a lengthy period if total fertility is kept at or below replacement level - about 2.1 children per woman. California did reduce its total fertility rate below 2.0 in the 1970s. But the influx of immigrants with high fertility traditions has pushed California's rate to 2.4-the highest in the nation, and about the same as prevails in such developing countries as Sri Lanka, North Korea, Chile, and in the Caribbean. The birth rate for white teens has risen to almost 4 percent, but is three times higher for Latinas since many shun abortion.
Black teens fall in between.
Since 85 percent of teen pregnancies, and 55 percent of those of older women are unintended, CAPS believes great opportunity exists to lower American fertility. Now into its third decade of modern mass immigration, California is unable to absorb the numbers. One in ten Americans came from abroad, and California received 40 percent of the flow. One in four Californians is foreign-born. Immigrants constitute 35 to 40 percent of California's annual growth, and births to high fertility immigrants contribute even more.