Shifting societal norms regarding marriage are clearly affecting procreation.For background, read Defeating Marriage & Destroying Family: Survey and also read Marriage Trend: Confined within Church
UPDATE 12/7/12: Women Who Give Birth Live Longer and Healthier
-- From "Educated women holding off on childbirth" by UPI 5/9/11
In 2000, women 25 to 34 with at least a bachelor's degree had fewer total children and were less likely to have ever given birth than women who had less than a high school education.
By 2010, the same group of women -- now age 35 to 44 -- with at least a bachelor's degree had 1.7 births, while women who had less than a high school education had 2.5 births
"Our findings show that a 'delayer boom' is under way, where highly educated women initially delay childbearing but are more likely to have children into their 30s," Census Bureau demographer Kristy Krivickas said.
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From "White women more likely to be childless, Census says" by Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY 5/9/11
The Census Bureau uses age 44 as the age for completion of childbearing. The data show that 20.6% of white women were childless, compared with 17.2% of black women, 15.9% of Asian women and 12.4% of Hispanic women.
Even more marked differences in childlessness by race and ethnicity are reflected among women who have never married. Among unmarried women by age 44, whites and Asians were much more likely to be childless than blacks or Hispanics. Of unmarried white women, 69.5% were childless; 65.8% of Asian women were childless. Among unmarried Hispanic women, 36.4% were childless; 27.8% of unmarried black women were childless.
Fertility researcher Karen Guzzo, an assistant professor of sociology at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, says many women "are probably not choosing never to have children, so much as … they're not forming relationships because they're investing in their education and careers."
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From "Census Data Reveals a Shift in Patterns of Childbearing" by Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times 5/9/11
Childbearing and fertility patterns have changed greatly since the 1970s.
There are far more women in their 40s without children now than there were in past decades. In 1976, just 10 percent of all women ages 40 to 44 had no children. That percentage had jumped to 19 percent by 2010.
In 1976, the earliest year in Monday’s data release, more women had three children than had two, but that has shifted over the years, with far more women having two children than three.
And it is more likely for a woman who has never married to have a child now than it was in the 1970s. Just 3 percent of women who had never been married had a child in 1976. Now the number is about 21 percent, up sharply even from 2008, when it was 15 percent.
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