The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) is a project of the Population Studies Center and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. With funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, grant 5R01 HD053533), our goal is to provide researchers, educators, students, policy makers, and others with a data resource to examine issues related to families and fertility in the United States spanning five decades.

IFSS provides access to ten individual national studies of fertility encompassing the Growth of American Families (GAF), National Fertility Surveys (NFS), and National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG) as well as a single dataset composed of harmonized variables across all ten surveys. Analytic tools make it possible to quickly and easily explore the data and obtain information about changes in behaviors and attitudes across time.

On the Data & Documentation page, users can download original and IFSS harmonized datasets along with documentation. For users interested in using IFSS harmonized data, we strongly encourage beginning with the IFSS User Guide. In addition, the page links to online data analysis tools for each survey and the harmonized dataset so users can explore the data without additional statistical software. You must have an ICPSR MyData account in order to use the online data analysis tools, though the tools are not restricted to ICPSR Member Institutions. Users can search for variables across all surveys, including the IFSS harmonized variables, on the Source Variable Search page (all harmonized variables will begin with IFSS_). To search, examine, and download selected harmonized variables, use the Harmonized Data Extracts page. Instructions for selecting and merging harmonized variables can be found in Using IFSS.

This project is consistent with the continuing mission of the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch (DBSB) of the NICHD with respect to research on fertility, the family, and family planning. The IFSS provides a national resource that enhances knowledge about reproductive health, contraceptive use, pregnancy, and other issues vital to understanding and tracking the health of the population.