Most American women under 50 who don’t have kids reveal their reason for being childless
U.S. fertility rate has been steadily declining, reaching a historic low in 2023
A majority of childless women under 50 say they never had kids simply because they didn’t want any, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Half of men and 64% of women said they don’t have children because they “just don’t want to”, according to the survey released Thursday. Among adults under 50 who said they are unlikely to have children, 44% said they wanted to “focus on different things,” 38% said it was because of the state of the world, 36% said they couldn’t afford it.
Childless adults under the age of 50 are twice as likely to not have children compared to those over 50, citing career interests, according to the survey.
We asked U.S. adults without children about their experiences, including those 50 and older and those younger than 50 who say they’re unlikely to ever have children. Here’s what we found https://t.co/HRrrIduTup
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) July 25, 2024
At the same time, women over the age of 50 said they never had kids because it “just didn’t happen,” according to the survey. Among adults over 50 who don’t have kids, 38% said that there was a time they wanted children, while 32% said they never wanted children.
The U.S. fertility rate has been steadily declining, according to the survey. In 2023, the fertility rate reached a historic low, and a growing percentage of women between 25 and 44 have never had children.
From 2018 to 2023, the share of U.S. adults who said they are unlikely to ever have children also grew by 10 percentage points from 27% to 47%, according to a Pew Research Center survey from August of 2023.
Across all ages, most adults without children said it makes it easier to afford their desired lifestyles, finance their hobbies and to “save for the future,” according to the survey.
For childless adults under 50, roughly six in ten said not having children makes it easier for them to have a successful career and to maintain an active social life, according to the survey.
The Pew Research Center surveyed 2,542 adults above the age of 50 who don’t have children and 770 adults under the age of 50 who said they don’t have children and are unlikely to have any. The participants were surveyed between April 29 to May 19 with a margin of error of 10.8 percentage points.
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