A significantly higher share of babies are born to immigrants in California than in any other state, even as a lower-than-average share of the state's births are to poor women and women on welfare, according to a newly-released report.
About 41 percent of births in California in 2005 and 2006 were to immigrant mothers, according to the report published by the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday.
In part, California's high share of immigrant births reflects the fact that immigrants make up a larger slice of California's total population than in any other state, demographers said.
While California had higher than average rates of new mothers without a high school education and who were immigrants, the Golden State had lower-than-average rates of mothers who were poor, or who were on public assistance, according to the report.
Immigrants account for more than one-third of births in only one other state -- Nevada, where 34 percent of births were to immigrants, according to the U.S. Census report.
Nationally, the report showed that more American women are skipping motherhood or are waiting longer to have children, a trend already evident in California, where birthrates to women in their 40s have tripled the past two decades.
"Women are delaying their childbearing until they complete their educations," said Jane Lawler Dye, a family demographer with the Census Bureau and author of the report, which is based on population data collected in 2006.
By drawing from a broader population sample than in the past, the new fertility study looks at the differences in birth rates between Hispanic women of succeeding generations. It also examines the wide variation in fertility among the states.
While women who had given birth in the previous year in California were the most likely to be immigrants, new mothers in Mississippi were most likely to be poor. New mothers in Iowa were the most likely to be working, while those in Texas were the most likely to lack a high school diploma.
"This is the first time we've looked at a lot of these characteristics," Dye said. "We've never shown this much detail."
Source:Xinhua
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