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UK Wedding News

08/03/2013

ONS Report Reveals 20% Of Women Remain Childless

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed a fifth of women now reach the age of 45 without having a child.

It also found the likelihood of a woman becoming a mother at all, has fallen by more than a third.

The decline of marriage and career aspirations were named as reasons for the fall in numbers.

Researchers looked into the childbirth histories of women born in 1966 and found that one in five had not had children. This compares with the previous generation (their mothers' generation) with one in eight women not having children in 1939.

The report also suggested that while there is a growing trend for women to start families later in life, if a woman didn't have a family by the age of 45, it was likely she would not have a family.

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The number of women choosing to remain childless is now at its highest since 1920 when women were denied a marriage and a family because of the large loss of men during the First World War.

Explaining the latest results, the ONS report said: "A wide range of explanations relating to circumstances and choices have been put forward for the increasing childlessness.

"These include the decline in the proportion of women married, changes in the perceived costs and benefits of childrearing versus work and leisure activities, greater social acceptability of the child-free lifestyle, and the postponement of decisions about whether to have children until it may be biologically too late."

The figures also reveal women were now, on average, most likely to have a child just before their 30th birthday.

It said reasons for the delay include an increasing number of women entering into higher education, delays into marriage and partnership formation as well as "the desire to establish a career, get on the housing ladder and ensure financial stability before starting a family."

A separate ONS report, the General Lifestyle Survey, also revealed that less than half the adult women currently living in Britain were married. One in three unmarried women said they were living in a cohabiting relationship in 2011, while the report found an average marriage that ends in divorce, lasts for just under 11 years.

(JP)

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"New figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed a fifth of women now reach the age of 45 without having a child."