Is the average family size shrinking?

[MidnightPatrol]

Inspired by a couple of threads I saw last week.

I am in my thirties and one of four. My DH is one of three. This was quite common among my school friends.

I don’t know anyone with more than two children. Most only have one.

depends cultural background the average is different in each for some the average is two for others the average is larger .

Where I live there are quite a few 4/5 families but mostly 2.

I think 2 is now the average but in my son's primary school class there is a real mix of family sizes ranging from 1 child to 9 children!

I’m older than you and don’t know that many people who are one of 3 or 4 children, it definitely wasn’t the norm among my school friends.

I think I read somewhere that it's declining. That also rings true anecdotally for me too, I have a few friends who have actively chosen to have 1 child whereas I believe it used to be fairly uncommon.

One and two seems to be the most common. I have three and to be completely honest, I totally get why people stop at two. Three is bloody hard work!

Factually - yes, it is.

Well, of my parents' generation:

My dad had 4 children (so 'should' have had 8 grandchildren for the children to be born at the same rate in the next generation) and 9 grandchildren

My aunt had 3 children and 4 grandchildren

Another aunt 2 children and 4 grandchildren

Another aunt 2 children and 3 grandchildren

So amount of children born in those two generations is roughly similar. But interestingly approximately 7 of the grandchildren have reached the kind of age their parents had children and so far only one has had a child. So it will be interesting to see if all the rest have kids later than their parents did or whether this is the generation in my family where far fewer children are born.