Health : ‘30-Something’ Baby Boom Noted

WASHINGTON — One-third of the estimated 3.7 million births in the year ended in June, 1988, were to women in their 30s, a dramatic increase from the 19% in 1976, the Census Bureau said today.

The bureau, in its annual survey of the fertility of American women, also said that the number of premaritally conceived first births has risen sharply over the last 15 years and that 22% of women between 18 and 44 who had a child in the previous year were not married.

Overall, the Census Bureau said the fertility rate was 69.7 births per 1,000 women. Hispanic women had the highest fertility rate, 94 births per 1,000, and accounted for 11% of all births in the survey period although they make up only 8% of women in the U.S. between 18 and 44 years old.