Story at a glance
- A new study published in the journal Population Studies found that Black college-educated women have fewer children on average than white or Hispanic college-educated women.
- The difference between how many children college-educated white and Black women are having is mostly driven by Black women with college degrees being less likely to have a second child.
- The reasons behind the disparity are unclear and require further research, according to a Yale University sociologist.
Black women in the U.S. with a college education on average have fewer children than white or Hispanic women with college degrees, new research shows.
In a study published this week in the journal Population Studies, researchers looked at more than a decade’s worth of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, parsing information collected on more than 11,100 women between 2006 and 2017.
Researchers then calculated the number of children women from different racial and ethnic groups and educational achievements had on average — examining the proportion of women in each group who gave birth to one or up to three children.
The team of researchers, led by Yale University assistant professor of sociology Emma Zang, found that college-educated women had fewer children than women who did not graduate college regardless of race or ethnicity.
But the study also found that there appears to be a difference in how many children college-educated women of different races are having.
“Conventional wisdom holds that racial or ethnic disparities in fertility will fade once women in minority groups attain similar education levels and socioeconomic status as white women, but we find that gaps occur at all education levels,” said Zang.
“In general, highly educated women have fewer children than less educated women, but this doesn’t explain the disparities we found among women with college degrees.”
Zang added that the study highlights the need for more research on differences in childbearing among women of various incomes.
Regardless of education, Hispanic women had the highest average number of children out of all three ethnic groups. Latina women without a high school diploma, those that completed high school and Latina women who graduated high school averaged 2.66, 2.35 and 1.97 kids, respectively.
Meanwhile, white college-educated women and Black college-educated women averaged 1.75 and 1.58 children, respectively, according to the study.
Study authors note that the difference in the average number of children Black and white college-educated women give birth to is driven mostly by a smaller portion of Black mothers having more than one child.
A high number of both Black and white college-educated women had only one child, the survey found. But the rate of Black college-educated mothers giving birth to a second child was 10 percentage points less than that of white women.
According to the study, about 80 percent of college-educated white women had a second child while less than 70 percent of similarly educated Black mothers did.
The reason for this is still unclear and indicates a need for further research on the relationship between racial disparities and fertility among women with college degrees, according to Zang.
“Are the differences in fertility the product of highly educated Black and Hispanic women being more aware of the higher risk of pregnancy-related complications among their racial groups, such as miscarriage, infant mortality, and maternal mortality?” Zang said.
“Are they the result of college-educated Black and Hispanic women more often needing to navigate spaces, including workplaces, dominated by white people compared to less-educated Black and Hispanic women, making them wary of confirming the stereotype that they are highly fertile? Do they exist because Black and Hispanic women with college degrees who wanted a second child were prevented from having one due to health issues caused by long-term chronic stress related to racism?”
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