Another look at the Hutterites and natural rertility

Abstract

The fertility of the Hutterites has become almost legendary in the demographic literature. Coale selected their overall total fertility rate (equal to 10.9) as the standard for his index of marital fertility (Coale, 1965). The rate is very commonly used as a benchmark for “natural fertility” that is, as an indicator of how high human procreation can be under favorable environmental conditions and with no deliberate controls.

The present note takes off from the interesting but unexplored fact that while the Hutterite TFR of 10.9 is high relative to most other extant populations, this rate does not, in fact, represent a maximum biological potential TFR. In other words, some controls do seem to be at work even among the Hutterites. The purpose of this exercise is two‐fold: (1) We estimate a modified figure for what Hutterite fertility could be under a truly unconstrained regime and present a revised age pattern of that fertility; (2) We compare this modified Hutterite age‐specific fertility‐rate pattern to the “natural fertility” age‐specific fertility‐rate pattern and look at some broader implications.