US: 16.5% of women born in 1953 never had a child, 10.0% of those born in 1974
For women born in 1980 it is 13.1%: childlessness is rising again but has not reached the boomer level.
Source: Human Fertility Database (CC BY 4.0)Open on the chart →
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How many women born in one year never had a child. Generations already differed: late boomers more often stayed childless than Gen X.
Each bar is women born in one year: the share with no children by the end of childbearing age.
- Childlessness by cohort % of women; year = birth year of women
1953: 16.5
- Childlessness by cohort % of women; year = birth year of women
1974: 10
- Childlessness by cohort % of women; year = birth year of women
1980: 13.1
Human Fertility Database, US cohort childlessness; a cohort is complete once observed to age 44 or older.
Gen Z cannot be measured this way yet: women born in 1997 turn 44 in 2041. The database itself advises caution with cohort parity data.
A question for this picture
Is childlessness rising the same way in Europe?