" In 1800 the United States had a birth rate higher than any ever recorded for a European country, but it fell steeply and consistently throughout the century. The total fertility rate, which is the average number of children borne by a woman before she reaches menopause, had fallen 50 percent by 1900. "

― Richard White , The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896