Measuring US fertility using administrative data from the Census Bureau.

Area of Science:

• Demography
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• Existing US fertility data lacks state-level representativeness, hindering subnational variation analysis.
• Restricted-use US Census Bureau data offers potential for fertility measurement but remains underutilized in scholarly research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and analyze restricted-use administrative birth data from the Census Numident for nearly all US births over the past century.
• To illustrate the scope and limitations of these data, particularly for studying US fertility.
• To demonstrate the utility of these novel data sources for scholarly research.

Main Methods:

• Description of the creation and content of the Census Numident and Census Household Composition Key (CHCK) datasets.
• Comparison of the administrative data with published US vital statistics.
• Analysis of geographic coverage and demographic composition of the new data sources, including individual-level comparisons with survey data.

Main Results:

• The Census Numident and CHCK datasets provide comprehensive birth records for over a century.
• Data linkage via CHCK enables parent-birth connections for most births since 1997.
• The administrative data demonstrate good quality and coverage, comparable to national demographics.

Conclusions:

• The described Census Bureau datasets represent an underutilized national resource for fertility research in the US.
• These data enable detailed subnational fertility analyses previously not possible.
• Guidance is provided on accessing these valuable data for future scholarly investigations.