20% American Women Childless By Choice, Shows Study
A recent study has revealed that around 20% of women in the US are choosing to remain childless. Late marriage, desire to pursue higher studies, focus on career are some of the reasons, which can result in fertility problems for women who have passed the years for conceiving. The statistics was revealed by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends Project. The study showed that almost 20 percent American women in their early 40s are childless and the trend has almost doubled in the last four decades.
The statistics include only biological offspring and not stepchildren or those adopted. "I certainly think it's notable that there is such a large increase in the share of women who do not have children for whatever reasons,” said D'Vera Cohn, a co-author of the study to
"The fact that nearly one of five women does not have a child of her own -- that's an enormous transformation from the past," added Cohn. Pew’s report showed that in the 1970’s, almost one in 10 American women aged 40-44 never became mother but the figure went up to 18% in 2008.
Experts maintained that the phenomenon is a social and cultural shift and the women are willing to remain without a child out of choice. “Broken down by race, roughly 20 percent of white women are childless, compared with 17 percent of blacks and of Hispanics and 16 percent of Asians. Still that gap has been narrowing: Since 1994, childlessness for blacks and Hispanics has grown by 30 percent, about three times the rate for whites,” found the report.
