Description

Women ages 15 to 50, regardless of marital status, were asked whether they had given birth to any children in the past 12 months. FERTYR reports their "yes" or "no" answer to this question.

Comparability

This variable is only available in the ACS and the PRCS. Most 20th century U.S. censuses asked at least some women how many children they had ever given birth to (see CHBORNand CHSURV). FERTYR is not comparable to these other variables about childbearing.

Problems in the collection of data on women who gave birth in the past year in 2012 led to suppressing this variable in 59 PUMAs within the states of Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. These suppressed cases were given a code of 8. This only affects data from the 2012 1-year ACS and 2012 cases from the 3- and 5-year 2012 ACS samples. See the Estimation section of the Accuracy of the Data for the 2012 1-year PUMS for more information on PUMS estimates using FERTYR (referred to as FER in document).

Universe

Availability

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: ACS; ACS 3yr; ACS 5yr
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2004: All samples
• 2003: All samples
• 2002: All samples
• 2001: All samples
• 2000: ACS
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1960: --
• 1950: --
• 1940: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --
• 1900: --
• 1880: --
• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: PRCS; PRCS 3yr; PRCS 5yr
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2000: --
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

FERTYR (Children born in the last year)
ACS Years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
ACS editing procedure:
If a person reports being male (SEX) or being less than 15 or older than 50 (AGE), FERTYR will be replaced with a missing value.
For women between the ages of 15 and 50 years old who have a "Blank, Don't know, Refused, or Bad Value" for FERTYR, the value will be allocated.
The Census creates an internal variable to indicate if there is a possible infant. For women 15 to 50 who are either the "householder" or the "spouse" (RELATE) and where there is a "child" of the householder (RELATE) who is 0 years old, the possible infant variable will be a "Yes" value. If there is no "child" of the householder who is 0, the possible infant variable will be a "No" value.
For women between the ages of 15 and 50 who are not the householder or the spouse but who are in a subfamily with children (SFTYPE) and are the subfamily reference person or spouse (SFRELATE) and there is a child who is 0 years old in the same subfamily (SUBFAM), the possible infant variable will be a "Yes" value. If there is no child who is 0 years old in the subfamily, the possible infant variable will be a "No" value. IF a woman is not in a subfamily, the possible infant variable will be a "No" value.
For all women 15 to 50, if FERTYR is blank, don't know, refused, or a bad value, it will be allocated. The allocated value comes from another woman of a similar age, marital status, and value of the possible infant variable. When this happens, the flag QFERTYR will show the value is allocated.
Internal ACS variable : FER