The decision not to have children has been increasingly common among Millennials and members of Gen Z in recent years. There are some factors such as economic pressures and the changing social norms behind this phenomenon. In 2023, the U.S. fertility rate has dropped to the lowest level ever, part of an increasingly common trend in adults of prime child-bearing years who opt to become child-free. Of course, the individual reasons might differ, but the one that stands out as a significant variable of soaring cost of living with the younger generation.
A report by the Pew Research Center indicates that people below 50 years without children are three times likelier than their older counterparts to point to financial constraints as one of the reasons for not having kids: 36% versus 12%. The percentage of young US adults saying they aren’t likely to have children when their lives are settled has grown from 37% in 2018 to 47% in 2023.
Interestingly, as powerful as they are, financial concerns are not the number one reason. The top reason is a very simple answer: many do not desire parenthood. In its report, Pew surveyed 2,542 adults aged 50 and older without children and 770 adults aged 18 to 49 who do not plan to have kids.
It’s the economic challenges that pose a big obstacle. Even with higher pay than that earned by their parents at the same age, Millennials and Gen Zers all face grappling with exorbitant house prices, childcare, and healthcare expenses pervasive enough to make many reconsider bearing children. Majorities of both younger and older childless adults said not having kids made it easier for them to afford their lifestyle and save for the future.
The financial strain is particularly experienced by high earners, who are often referred to as HENRYs – High Earners, Not Yet Rich. One of the most significant barriers to accessing student loans is the belief that it would be impossible to eventually save money to finance the education of any future children. For instance, the 29-year-old earning $125,000 does not even think of beginning a family while he is still indebted to his student loans.
This financial insecurity is coupled with life experiences for millennials, with the oldest in the generation coming of age during the Great Recession and therefore delaying things like marriage or homeownership. Many feel that their finances are on precocious ground, and social norms have now placed on this recipe having a stable job, stable income, and a solid partnership before having children.
Societal expectations of what constitutes prerequisites for parenthood can make it feel unreachable for some. That takes years to achieve, especially these days. Some people may feel like they’re never going to be in a good place,” said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina.
It’s also become a political talking point as childless adults become more commonplace. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance recently took a shot at Democratic front-runner Kamala Harris for not having biological children, telling Fox News that “one of the things you’ll notice at the Democratic National Convention this week is that, like, the childless, they have no physical commitment to the future of this country.
There are concerns about the environment as well. Climate change was cited by 26% of those under 50 in the Pew report as a reason for not having children. But the figure for those over 50 was only 6%. Just “it just didn’t happen” was the most commonly given reason in that older age group.
Having no children is more and more considered as a personal preference – not a lack of something inevitable. For example, 25-year-old student Jurnee McKay, studying to become a nurse, told fears of childbirth, risks from pregnancies, and also the price of caring for a child. The doctor didn’t want to commit sterilization for her, and it is a good illustration of social pressure to have children.
Another Pew survey found that, of the adults under 50 without children, 57 percent said they just didn’t want to have them, though significantly more often women than men cited that as the top reason. Other reasons ranked include focusing on work, worrying about the condition of the world, or not having found the right partner.
Over the last decade, the U.S. fertility rate has been dropping and is projected to reach about 1.6 births per woman in the year 2023, a record low. This change is part of a general trend in which childbearing is seen as one of many choices people make in life, not something one cannot do without.
As Jennifer Glass, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, puts it, “The pressure to be the main earner while taking care of the family falls too much on women, and for some, the burden becomes too much to handle, so they decide to remain childless” homeowners.
Research also indicates that non-parents in the U.S. are comparatively happier than parents, and it is wider than that of other industrialized countries. Most of those surveyed by Pew said no kids made it easier to afford their lifestyle and save for the future.
This can be because of infertility; or because their partner wants that. And among that fraction of over-50s with no children, the most common reason was that it was just not meant to be.
For cultural standards to have since become open but, in relative terms, more individualistic, the decision of not having children has become more palatable, as have the perceptions in society of what the decision may represent or associate one with.