Almost HALF of 30-year-old women are childless – compared to one in five in their mothers’ generation, official figures show
- Data released today revealed 48% women were childless by their 30th birthday
- Stark contrast from their mothers’ generation, when 8 in 10 had a baby by then
- Women are delaying having children to go to university and pursue their careers
Nearly half of women do not start a family until they are in their 30s and a growing number are staying childless, official figures show.
Data released today revealed 48 per cent of the female population in England and Wales had no children by their 30th birthday last year – the joint highest on record.
It is a stark contrast from their mothers’ generation – who were born in the 1940s. Eight in 10 of them had at least one baby by that age.
The figures show women are increasingly delaying motherhood, instead pursuing a career before settling down and starting a family.
Data released today revealed 48 per cent of the female population were childless by their 30th birthday – the highest on record. It is a stark contrast from their mothers’ generation, born in the 1940s. Eight in 10 of them had at least one baby by that age (shown on graph)
The figures show women are increasingly delaying motherhood, perhaps because they are more likely to go to university and pursue a career before settling down (stock)
Recent surveys suggest financial pressures have also contributed, leaving women feeling like they can’t afford to have a baby in their 20s.
Job uncertainty, rising house prices and increasing costs of raising a child were the most common economic reasons they gave for delaying motherhood.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) report also revealed the number of women choosing not to have children at all has been steadily increasing.
Roughly one in five women (19 per cent) over the age of 45 have no children, compared to one in ten of those born in the early 1940s.
The ONS said the same social and economic changes were to blame for the fall.
Teenage motherhood is also dropping, with just 6 per cent of women having had at least one child before their 20th birthday.
This figure has steadily decreased for the 10th year running, with experts citing improved sexual education and easier access to contraceptives for the fall.
The new report also found the average size of families in England and Wales peaked for women born in 1935 and has been falling since.
Overall, women today are having 1.89 children on average. This is the same as the previous year but continues a downward trend from a high of 2.42 for women born in 1935.
More than double the proportion of women born in 1973 are childless compared to their mother’s generation
The proportion of women having just one child has been rising over the years and currently stands at 18 per cent.
That figure has stagnated since last year but is up from 14 per cent for women born in 1946.
Two-children families remain the most common size, at 37 per cent for women who reached their 45th birthday in 2018.
Among this age group, almost one in five (19 per cent) of women were childless at the end of their childbearing years – similar to recent years but more than double the 9 per cent among their mothers’ generation.
In its release, the ONS said childlessness was caused by ‘a decline in the proportion of women married’, ‘changes in the perceived costs and benefits of child-rearing versus work and leisure activities’, ‘greater social acceptability of a child-free lifestyle’ and leaving it too late to try to conceive.
