Are More Women Deciding To Have Children Today?
I was wondering today about what statistics there are on the numbers of women who are thinking about and planning to having children. I had assumed that, because of the falling birth rates that more women continue to make a decision to be childfree. However, when I went to look into this question, I found an across an interesting article by a writer called Megan Thielking, More US Women Plan On Having Kids in the online magazine Stat saying that current research is showing that more women are planning on having children than they were a decade ago.
I found this surprising, as it appears that more and more women in the US, Canada and Europe are choosing to be childfree. Some statistics put the number of childfree women at around 1 in 5. And, according to the 2014 US census, 47.6% of women between 15 - 44 have never had children, which is the highest it has been. (Huffington Post A Record Percentage of Women Don't Have Kids ).
The Stat article points out that the birth rate fell dramatically in 2008 when the US and other countries were experiencing a major recession.
'Having kids is not an inexpensive life decision,” said Dr. Hal Lawrence, the executive vice president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “When people are concerned about the economy, they shy away from having children or more children.”
Fertility rates fell dramatically in the US in 2008, which experts have said was closely linked to economic insecurity brought on by the Great Recession. But as unemployment rates continue to fall, Lawrence said, potential parents could be growing newly comfortable with the idea of having children. And indeed, in 2014, for the first time in seven years, the birth rate increased in the US.'
The articles author Megan Thielking, points out that other factors in the US might also be at play. When Obama Care was brought in, it made health insurance more accessible, taking away some of the strain of the worry about the cost of giving birth.
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