PREDICTIONS – 10 Years Later - Santa Fe Institute

APPENDIX C
THE BIRTH RATE OF AMERICAN WOMEN
Average number
of children
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
1%
0
-0.5
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Age
APPENDIX FIGURE 4.4 The number of children American women have on average
as a function of the women’s age. The nominal beginning of the fitted curve
is around 10, indicating that fertility starts earlier than observed. The ceiling
during 1987 was 1.87 children per woman on the average. ∗
∗ The data come from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1989.
294