In your child’s class, how many siblings do most children have?

[Allswellthatendswelll]

Based on something I read about how the birth rate crunch is actually a lot to do with smaller families not childfree people:

In your child's class what's the main number of siblings? I totted up for my reception child and it was about 22 kids were one of two, 3 only children and 5 as one of 3. Having two kids seems very much the norm. Obviously it's reception so there could be more siblings later. We are home counties, reasonably affluent.

Haven’t a clue!

How would you know? I have older children so it might look like my youngest is an only child.

DS' class is 27 one boy has 3 siblings, I'd say around half are only children and the rest are one of two.

I haven't got a clue. I know two have younger siblings because both were heavily pregnant when they started in reception but otherwise I've no idea.

Most people I know - school and others - have two. This includes us.

I can think of only two families with more than two at child age and we know a lot of young families.

We spoke about having a third but decided that we wouldn’t be able to and not struggle financially. Also, our bandwidth is pushed to its max with two, working full time and no village (family nearby).

Yes, the birth rate crunch is absolutely because people are having fewer children and we are therefore not increasing our growth.

You need to get out more OP.

15 have 1 sibling
3 have 2 siblings
3 have 0 siblings
9 unknown, could be only children or have unseen younger kids.

This is in reception, and friends whose kids are at more multicultural schools report more siblings

Our whatsapp group lists all the school siblings so easy to check!

My son is an only. In his P7 class (now in high school so no idea!) there were 3 other only children, a few who were 2 but a set of twins who had 11 brothers and sisters!!!

No idea. I spotted one with a new baby the other day so that makes 3 for them - eldest is nearly 7 - and I know 2 only children and a few with one sibling.

In dd's school I believe there are about 14 with one sibling, 6 only children and 6 who have more than one sibling.

You might not know everyone, and maybe not in your case.

At my DC's primary I chatted to other parents, and sometimes older siblings (Secondary or adult) collected the child, child mentions siblings, that kind of thing.

Certainly by y3 I would have had a pretty good idea, and similarly I would have known which children lived in a traditional 'nuclear' family, who had step dads, etc.

I have no idea but the ones I can think off
4 are 1 of 3
5 are 1 of 2
3 are only children

My child has 8 in her year. There is 1 family with 4, 1 family with 3, 5 families with 2 and 1 family with 1.

I've no idea on the class siblings but most people I know have two, with a significant smaller portion having one. (We have one.) I can only think of a handful of families with three, none with four, and one with five.

I know all the families as we have a nice community and I've been to about 500 class parties!

I’m not sure now as DD is older, but in reception, for example, out of a class of 22, maybe 2 or 3 we’re only children, the majority were from families with 2 children and the rest 3 or more.
That said, I’ve noticed an increased number of people sticking at one. I was an only child and it was definitely more unusual back then

Why would attend that many parties...don't you have other stuff you'd rather do on evenings and weekends?

You know it is possible to just not comment on threads that don't interest you. Or is the default on mumsnet now just to be unpleasant for no reason?

Two is the standard. I can think of only three families with three children.
Also only three only children. Out of 30. There’s 4 newish children who I don’t know about - DDs school is in a middle class part of a city but catchment stretches out to a less affluent area. Highly diverse and significant turnover due to skilled immigration largely. White middle class or Muslim families are the most likely to have three children.

For my older one it's a fairly even split of two and one. My younger mostly two with some ones and threes.

The thing that struck me was when we had the coronation on TV and my older one saying that they didn't realise that you were allowed to have more than two kids. I think one or two is now seen as normal and three or more as big.

DH and I were talking about this the other day. Our DD was born in 2011, and nearly every child in her primary class had a sibling. It was a bulge year too, lots of babies!

DS was born in 2018 - a third of his class are only children. I think it’s Covid, then money worries.

Of the top of my head I’d say majority was 2 but quite a few have 3, and there’s definitely two with 4+ as were one of them. Nobody is an only child.

2 kids is the norm at my daughter's school. I know of a few families that have 3 and one with 4+. It's easier to spot the 3 child families at my son's secondary. We are a farming community and it's actually shocking to consider how family size has shrunk in two generations. Go back 60 years and 5.siblings would not be unheard of.

The birth rate is definitely falling locally as well as overall - there are far more children leaving our primary school this year than joining it, to the point where there might be staff losses if it continues for another year. This is mixed suburbs of a large city, a choice of several primary schools in the area, and all of them are seeing this to some degree.

I’d say the very vast majority of all families I know have 1 or 2 children.

I think in families where previously they may have had 3 or 4, they’re probably having two instead now.

Everyone I ever speak to about having another baby, voices financial concerns as the issue. People want to maintain a decent quality of life and the easiest way to do that is by having less kids.

Having 3 or 4 kids is the new wealth status symbol.