A new study breaks down the reasons more U.S. adults say they are unlikely to have children.

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Like Ms. McKay, a growing number of U.S. adults say they are unlikely to raise children, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center. When the survey was conducted in 2023, 47 percent of those younger than 50 without children said they were unlikely ever to have children, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2018.

When asked why kids were not in their future, 57 percent said they simply didn’t want to have them. Women were more likely to respond this way than men (64 percent vs. 50 percent). Further reasons included the desire to focus on other things, like their career or interests; concerns about the state of the world; worries about the costs involved in raising a child; concerns about the environment, including climate change; and not having found the right partner.

  • @givesomefucksEnglish
    9•1 month ago

    Having fewer children is something that is positively-correlated with a society being wealthy, rather than the other way around.

    Correlation is not causation, there’s no “other way around”…

    But what you’re talking about is the drop in fertility due to industrialization and other periods where children worked less and cost more.

    That’s different than what I’m talking about; when a labor supply shrinks it means workers get paid more.

    That’s just basic supply and demand.

    We’re both right, just talking about different things.

    • @phcorcoran
      5•1 month ago

      I took “rather than the other way around” to mean “rather than negatively-correlated” in this context, since positively was emphasized