Women are having fewer children than ever before and more are staying childless, new data reveals today. Women who turned 45 in 2016 had an average of 1.80 children, down from 2.21 for their mothers’ generation, who turned 45 in 1944. The same generation also had fewer children by their 30th birthday, suggesting women are having children later in life.
Women who turned 45 last year had 1.06 children by 30 compared to 1.8 in their mother’s generation. In total, 18 percent of women who turned 45 last year had no children at all, compared with 11 percent of women in their mother’s generation. The ONS said the figures, collected from birth registration data going back to the 1930s, defined 45 as the age by which most women had stopped having children. READ MORE
