Monday, March 30, 2009

Half of Kids are First-Borns

The other day I noted that a fifth of older Gen X women had no children. To complete the set, I made a rough calculation, based on Census data, of the proportion of their children in each birth order position. For women 40 to 44 in 2006, their children were distributed thus.

Onlies: 21.1%
Firsts (besides onlies): 32.1
Seconds: 32.1
Thirds: 10.5
Fourths: 2.8
Fifths and beyond: .8

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live in an upper middle class neighborhood. My kids take the bus, but if the family runs late I make take them to school. There's a kiss-and-drop where school employees open the car door to get the kids out quickly and lessen congestion. One day couple years ago I took my kids, and the lady slammed the door in the face of my daughter: it hadn't occurred to her that there could be three. She was very embarrassed. dave.s.

Gruntled said...

I encourage students to consider three. Most are glad to have permission to think more than two is socially responsible.