More Americans are choosing to live a childfree life, study finds

A new study is shedding light on the growing population of American adults who do not have or want children. 

Researchers at Michigan State University analyzed 20 years of data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) – one of the most widely used sources of data on family formation in the U.S. that included data from nearly 84,000 respondents under the age of 45.

The study classified the survey respondents into six mutually exclusive types: childfree, biologically childless, socially childless, not yet parents, ambivalent and undecided.

Study focuses on childfree adults

What they're saying:

Zachary Neal, a co-author of the study, told FOX Local that the research team has been studying "childfree" adults, or those who do not have or want children, for several years.

"We started this line of research because we suspected it was a large and growing group, but there was relatively little large-scale representative research about it," he explained. "The majority of research on childfree adults had been qualitative, focused on interviews with just a few people." 

While Neal said the previous research was insightful, it couldn’t quantify how many people were childfree or whether it was becoming more common. 

Americans who are ‘childfree’ has grown significantly

By the numbers:

The researchers found that the percentage of U.S. non-parents aged 15-44 who were childfree has grown over the past 20 years. 

In 2002, only 13.8% of non-parents were childfree, but by 2022 this had more than doubled to nearly 30% (29.4%).

What they're saying:

"Our earlier research had focused on childfree adults in Michigan, where we estimated that around 20% of all adults are childfree. But, we didn’t know if a similarly high percentage of adults were childfree in other parts of the country," Neal continued, adding, "This research helped us confirm that Michigan isn’t unique, and that many adults throughout the US are childfree." 

Over the same period of research, the team observed additional trends. 

By the numbers:

The data also found that the percentage of non-parents who planned to have children in the future also declined from 78% in 2002 to only 59% in 2022. 

Meanwhile, the researchers found that the percentage of non-parents who were childless (who wanted children but couldn’t have them) stayed about the same (32% vs. 37%). 

What they're saying:

"It was surprising that, despite frequent discussions about fertility treatments such as IVF, childlessness is relatively rare and hasn’t changed in several decades," Neal added.

Is there a risk of population collapse?

Dig deeper:

Despite more Americans choosing not to have children or fewer children, as shown by a declining fertility rate, the researchers said they do not believe there is a risk of population collapse, noting that a growing portion of U.S. population growth may come from immigration rather than births.

"We hope readers will see that it is increasingly common for adults to decide they do not want children. Especially for readers who are still trying to decide whether they want children, or have already decided they do not want children, we hope this finding helps them understand their choice is a valid one," Neal said. 

The research team is working on several follow-up studies, including one that looks at the childfree population state-by-state, one that compares the social networks of childfree adults and parents, and one that looks at the percentage of childfree adults in developing countries.

RELATED: Trump reportedly ponders $5K baby bonus as US fertility rate remains near record low

The Trump administration has been evaluating ways to incentivize more Americans to get married and have more children amid declining birth rates. 

The New York Times reported last month that one of those incentives includes a $5,000 cash "baby bonus" to every American mother after delivery. 

What they're saying:

President Donald Trump reportedly endorsed the idea. "Sounds like a good idea to me," Trump reportedly told The Post in the Oval Office when asked about the Times’ report.

US birth rate 

The backstory:

In 2023, births in the U.S. were at their lowest one-year tally since 1979, with a little under 3.6 million babies born that year. 

In 2024, the number of births did increase in the U.S. – but only by about 1%, bringing the provisional number of births to 3.62 million, according to a new CDC report. 

What they're saying:

Experts don’t see the uptick as evidence that the long-term decline is reversing.

"I’d be hesitant to read much into the 2023-24 increase, and certainly not as an indication of a reversal of the trend towards lower or declining U.S. fertility," Hans-Peter Kohler, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist who studies family demographics, told The Associated Press in March when the preliminary data was released by the CDC. 

Big picture view:

U.S. births and birth rates have been falling for years. They dropped most years after the 2008-09 recession, aside from a 2014 uptick. They also dropped in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, then rose for two straight years after that, an increase experts partly attributed to pregnancies put off amid the pandemic.

The average age of mothers at first birth has continued to rise, hitting 27 1/2 years. It was 21 1/2 in the early 1970s, before beginning a steady climb.

Birth rates have long been falling for teenagers and younger women, but rising for women in their 30s and 40s — a reflection of women pursuing education and careers before trying to start families, experts say. 

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