The Decline of Fertility in the Southern Appalachian Mountain Region

This study investigates the decline of fertility in the Southern Appalachian Mountainl Region. Fertility rates of the white population were computed for each of the 190 counties included in the region for the years 1930, 1940, 1950, and 1960. Four measures of fertility were used: (1) the crude birth rate, (2) the child-woman ratio, (3) the general fertility rate, and (4) the general fertility rate indirectly standardized to the age distribution of U.S. white women 15 to 44 years of age in 1950. The hypothesis was supported that the recent decline in fertility was associated with net out-mnigration, which is highly selective of young adults. Net out-migration did not, however, account for the greater part of the decline. The ecological pattern of declining fertility showed the lowest rates to be in the metropolitan areas and in the more prosperous valley regions, while highest rates continued in the highland areas. T he people of the Southerni Appalachianl Mountains have had one of the higlhest reproduction rates of any major regioni of the United States during the present century.1 During the 1950-60 decade, however, birth rates in the Region dropped below the inatiolnal rate.2 The decline was particularly marked in somle of the highly rural counties, most of which have also been characterized by heavy migration losses. As a consequence of the declining fertility combined with net-migration loss, the population of the region decreased between 1950 anid 1960 for the first time since census data have been available. In order to understand 1nore fully the forces. operatinlg to bring about the decline of fertility in the area, an investigation was made of white fertility rates in each of 190 counties included in the region for the years 1930, 1940, 1950 and 1960.3 This region has recently been the object of an extensive social and econiomic survey because it remains one of the largest economic problem areas in the nationi.4 The economic difficulties of the regioln are traceable in large measure to anl imbalance of population and resources, a situation that was. clearly recognized in an earlier regionlal survey published in the 1930's.4 Although there has been a tremiendous outflow of migrants in recent decades, the 1960 population of the region was nearly a fifth greater than that of 1930, and only about three percent less than that of 1950. During the 1950-60 decade, according to Browvn and Hillery,6 the regionall rate of net migrationl loss was 19 percent of the 1950 pop* Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, Washingtoni, D. C., August 1962. 1 National Resources Committee, Thle Problemsts of a Changing Populationb (Washington, D. C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1938), pp. 122-123; Carle C. Zimmerman and Richard F. DuWors, Gr-aphic Regiontal Sociology (Cambridge, Mass.: The Phillips Book Store, 1952), pp. 45 and 53; L. C. Gray, et al., Eco-nonzic and Social Problems of the Southern Appalachians, Miscellaneous Publicationi No. 205, U. S. Department of Agriculture (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printinig Office), p. 5; Gilbert W. Beebe, Conttraception anid Fertility in the Southern Appalachiants (Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Company, 1942), pp. 18-19. 2 John C. Belcher, "Population Growth and Characteristics," Chapter 3 in Thomas R. Ford (ed.), Thle Southern Appalachian RegioTn: A Survey (Lexington, Kentucky: University of Keintucky Press, 1962), pp. 43-44. 3The Southern Appalachiaii Region as defined for the present study includes 190 mountain-area counties in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginiia, Alabama, Georgia, and Nortlh Carolina. 4 Thomas R. Ford (ed.), The Soitthern Appalachian Regiont: A Sitrvey (Lexinigton, Kentucky: Uniiversity of Kentucky Press, 1962). 5 Gray, et al., op. cit., pp. 3-6. 6 James S. Brown and George A. Hillery, Jr., "The Great Migration, 1940-1960." Chapter 4 in Ford (ed.), op. cit.. p. 59. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:32:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms