According to a report in the Daily Mail, based on a Pew Research Center survey, the United States has seen the biggest decline in births since 1973. Almost 50 percent of American adults say they don’t want kids. Why you ask? Well, according to both the survey and the popular news outlet, these adults say that the future seems too bleak.
In a survey of almost 4,000 adults, exactly 44 percent of participants aged 18-49, said that they did not want to have children. This is a seven percent increase from a 2018 survey. It was once a natural progression to grow up and have children of your own, but now things are definitely changing. And there are multiple reasons why potential parents are opting out.
Here are some of the reasons that the survey captured:
- More than 50 percent of the participants cited that they “just don’t want to have children” as their reasoning to not start a family.
- 19 percent of participants cited that medical reasons are holding them back.
- 17 percent of participants cited that financial reasons are stopping them from becoming parents.
- 15 percent of participants cited that they currently have no partner.
- 10 percent of participants cited that their age is a deterrent.
- Nine percent of participants cited that the current state of the world is a good reason not to have children.
- Five percent of participants cited that climate change/environmental issues ares stopping them from starting a family.
- Two percent of participants cited that their partner simply doesn’t want children.
Additionally, the survey broke the stereotype that all women actually want to have children. The survey found that both women and men responded equally as to say that they were not planning on becoming parents. Also, the survey found that 85 percent of individuals over the age of forty, who were non-parents, were twice as likely to remain without children as compared to 37 percent of those who were younger.
Ninety-one percent of parents over the age of 40, who had at least one child, said that they would skip having another as compared to 60 percent of those under the age of 40.
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