National Vital Statistics Reports

NVSR, Vol. 67, No. 307
Asian-American Mothers: Demographic Characteristics by Maternal Place of Birth and Asian Subgroup, 2016

This report describes women of Asian descent who gave birth in the United States in 2016. The demographic characteristics of non-Hispanic Asian mothers across six Asian subgroups—Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese—both overall and by whether they were U.S.-born or born outside the United States were compared. In addition, non-Hispanic Asian mothers were compared with the overall U.S. population of mothers. Overall, 6.4% of U.S. births in 2016 were to non-Hispanic Asian women. Mothers of Asian origin were not uniformly distributed across states. Most non-Hispanic Asian mothers were born outside the United States. Asian-Indian women comprised the largest subgroup (29.1%) of non-Hispanic Asian women who gave birth, followed by Chinese women (24.6%). Regardless of their subgroup or whether they were born in or outside the United States, non-Hispanic Asian mothers were older than U.S. mothers overall and less likely to be teen mothers. They were also more likely to be married and less likely to have received food while pregnant from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Non-Hispanic Asian mothers were more educated than the U.S. population of mothers. Each of these characteristics—age, marital status, WIC receipt, and education—varied by Asian subgroup and whether the mother was born in or outside the United States. As a group, non-Hispanic Asian women who gave birth in the United States in 2016 differed from U.S. mothers as a whole in selected maternal characteristics. However, substantial differences were also observed among Asian subgroups and by whether the mother was born in or outside the United States. Data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) 2016 vital statistics natality file were used for these analyses.

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