Research Symposium

BIO

Stephanie Villafuerte is from Broward County. She is a sophomore double majoring in Statistics and English with a concentration in Editing, Writing, and Media. On campus, she is part of the FSU Student Data Collective and Connecting Girls to STEM. She plans on beginning Honors in the Major in English and pursuing a career in technical writing.

Exploring Recent Fertility Predictors in the U.S.

Abstract

This research project aims to find predictors and patterns of fertility in American Community Survey (ACS) microdata to address the decreasing fertility rate in the United States. We have analyzed the descriptive statistics for the dataset, conducted a bivariate (two-variable) analysis and basic logistic regression analysis, and visualized the ACS microdata. The results show those with high or low levels of income have higher levels of fertility, while those who have a middle-class income have lower levels of fertility. This indicates that fertility levels based on income have an inverse normal distribution. Further studies could explore why education is negatively correlated with fertility and why the middle-class population has lower fertility than populations with low or high income. Finding predictors of fertility could provide an explanation for why fertility rates have been decreasing in the US and allow people to create policies accordingly.

Keywords: demography, fertility, statistics, census, sociology