America’s fertility rate was lower in 2023 than it’s ever been. And a new analysis by Pew Research Center finds among U.S. adults who aren’t parents, the share who say they don’t expect to ever have kids has risen 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023, to 47%.
That’s not far off the 50% of those under 50 with no children who said they are very or somewhat likely to have children in the future.
The center’s report looks closely at adults over 50 who didn’t ever have children and those younger than 50 who deem parenthood unlikely.
Pew Research Associate Rachel Minkin, who co-authored the report, said that seeing a rising trend among young adults, “along with data that shows a historically low U.S. fertility rate, we wanted to explore the experiences of adults who do not have children. Through this study we sought to learn more about the reasons adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children cite for why they didn’t have them, and the reasons adults under age 50 who don’t have children and say they’re unlikely to give for why that’s the case. We also explore the pressures they might face to have children, the pros and cons they see in not having children, and their worries for the future.”
She noted “some different reasons between why adults 50 and older say they didn’t have children and why adults younger than 50 say they’re unlikely to ever have them. The top response for those ages 50 and older is that it just didn’t happen. Those under 50 are more likely to point to not being able to afford having kids, concerns about the state of the world and the environment, or just not wanting to.”
Among the report’s highlights:
- Nearly 40% of those over 50 with no children say they did at some point want children, compared to 32% who said they never did. Another quarter of them said they weren’t sure if they wanted children.
- There’s an age-based gap in reasons for not having children or not having them yet: The primary response for those over 50 is “it just didn’t happen.” In the younger group, choice is the top reason. And the younger women especially say they don’t want to have kids (64% of the under-50 women, compared to half of the men that age).
- Majorities in both groups say being childless has made it “easier for them to afford the things they want, have time for hobbies and interests and save for the future.”
- But more people in both groups also agree that having children makes it easier to have someone to care for them as they age.
The survey included 2,542 adults 50 and older who never had kids and 770 adults under 50 who said they are unlikely to have kids. It was conducted April 29 to May 19, 2024. The report includes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 and 2022 Surveys of Income and Program Participation, as well.
Pew reported there isn’t much difference between the two groups when it comes to whether there was a medical reason, including infertility, for not having children or in whether the person being surveyed had a partner who didn’t want children.
Different views from opposite sides of 50
Eighty percent of those younger than 50 said being childless gave them more time for hobbies and interests, compared to 57% of those older than 50. Similarly, 79% of the younger group said they had more money to afford what they want vs. 61% of older adults without children.
There were also significant gaps when it came to it being easier to save for the future (75% vs. 57%), having career success (61% vs. 44% “among those who didn’t indicate this doesn’t apply to them”) and being active socially (58% of younger vs. 36% of older respondents who don’t have children).
Work experience related to family formulation has been more varied, with 45% of the younger adults and 35% of the older ones saying they have been able to do more networking outside of work hours because they are childless. On the other hand, close to a third in both groups say they’ve been given more work or responsibilities because they don’t have kids and “many also say they’ve been given less flexibility than those who have children.”
Folks in the survey who are older than 50 were asked about concerns related to growing older. About a third said they worry about having enough money, while just over a quarter are concerned about who will care for them. Almost 1 in 5 are concerned about being lonely when they’re older. Just over 1 in 10 say they “frequently worry about who will carry on their values and traditions when they’re gone,” per the report.
Gender differences
Among the older group, women who don’t have children have higher average monthly wages than the mothers, based on data from the government that compared how having or not having children impacts individuals. Among older men, it’s a different story. Men with children tend to earn more than those who are not fathers.
That’s been documented for at least a decade, most recently in Payscale’s 2024 Gender Pay Gap Report, which said working men who are fathers earn a median 15% more than their male colleagues who don’t have children.
In the younger group, Pew’s survey found that women are more likely than men to say they are unlikely to have kids because of “negative experiences with their own family growing up” (22% vs. 13%).
In the older group, women who don’t have children are more likely than male counterparts to say they’ve been “left out of conversations with coworkers who have children” (38% vs. 28% of men with no kids).
About 4 in 10 of the older women say they felt pressure from society to have kids when they were younger, compared to just 27% of men. Pressure from family members has been more even based on gender: 34% of older women and 29% of older men.
Regardless of gender, sizable majorities of adults in the older group who don’t have any children report being close to at least one of their nieces and nephews.
Life with and without children
The New York Times noted that “the decision to raise kids is shifting from ‘something that’s just an essential part of human life to one more choice, among others,’” citing Anastasia Berg, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.
Wendy Wang, director of research for the Institute for Family Studies, reported in late 2022 that American motherhood is “shrinking.” She found that in 2020, 1 in 6 women reaching the end of their childbearing years had never given birth. And not only are a smaller share of women having children, but the number of children that women have has been declining for years as well, driven in part by starting families at older ages.
There’s been a lot of debates about who’s happier, those with children or those without. It changes with time, as Wang and Institute for Family Studies scholar and fellow Deseret News contributor Brad Wilcox wrote in 2021. They cited headlines about parenthood causing loneliness, marital problems and other challenges, then countered them.
“There is only one problem with this handwringing: It no longer fits the data,” the duo wrote. “While it is true that parents once were more likely to report they were less happy than their childless peers, today that is most definitely not true. Recent research by Chris Herbst and James McQuivey suggests the happiness tide has turned in toward parents, especially those who are married.”
Research by the Wheatley Institute and the Institute for Family Studies conducted during COVID found that “life for parents is less lonely, more meaningful and happier.” The study noted that of couples married with kids, 85% are at least “pretty happy,” compared to 72% of those who are married but don’t have kids. Among parents who are not married but have kids, 76% said they’re happy, compared to 67% of those who are unmarried and childless.
A study published in 2017 in the American Journal of Sociology found great differences across countries in the amount of happiness between parents and non-parents. The researchers suggested the amount of support parents felt they received might make a big difference, including family policy supports.
Last year, Emily Harris, senior demographer at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, told Deseret News that demographers and others have compelling theories about why fertility has been dropping, but not proof. “There are a ton of issues going on,” she said. “Things people are talking about as societal, institutional issues and problems, such as the inability to find housing, the inability to find affordable housing, the increasing cost of day care or even trying to find a day care. There are inflation concerns. Things are becoming more expensive.”
The American Family Survey, a nationally representative poll conducted for Deseret News and Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy and Wheatley, has consistently found that most people who are parents like being parents and find it adds meaning to their lives. They’re satisfied with their own family lives, though they sometimes think other families struggle. Recent iterations of the poll, though, have also noted concern about the cost of raising a family.