ABSTRACT
Research in many different societies suggests that in most of them men and women have fairly clear ideas about the number of children that would be most gratifying and suitable for them. An understanding of the distribution of preferences for particular numbers of children is one important element in predicting or understanding population trends in a given society. This chapter examines how American couples of different social groups feel about different family sizes, and the social context in which individual preferences are held. The United States stands rather high in the family size ideals of its citizens, compared to other countries for which data are available. The United States outranks all industrially developed countries in the average size of its ideal family, and also outranks several less developed countries — Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and certain urban centers in India.
