This report presents national statistics on births to women by successive ages and successive intervals since marriage, on intervals between births, and on birth rates for past years. Some regional statistics are also presented, notably for the South. The data are shown by demographic, social, and economic characteristics of women and their families. Among the characteristics shown are color, marital status, age at first marriage, education, and labor force participation of women, and occupation and income of the husband. The statistics are based on a 5-percent sample of the population enumerated in the Eighteenth Decennial Census of Population, taken as of April 1, 1960.

The tabulations are based on the fertility histories of women as obtained from reported birth dates of their children who were present in the home and from estimates of birth dates for those children who had died or left home. In order to keep the number of children with estimated birth dates to a reasonably snail proportion of all children ever born, the data in this report are generally limited to women who were not so old or married so long that many of their children had grown up and left home. In an effort to simplify the Electronic Processing and processing problems, a few farther restrictions were employed. Hence, the numbers of women by age in 1960 or by date of marriage as shown in the present report are slightly below those of women of comparable age or date of marriage as shown in other reports of the 1960 Census. This fact Joes not seriously limit the usefulness of the present data for demographic analysis.