Where are all the only children?

[BrownWoodenChair]

Where are all the only children ? Literally all my sons friends who are 8 have a sibling and most kids in school have at least 1 sibling! Middle class area in the north. I thought families were smaller now

I would add that this isn’t a middle class area either - solid working class

South East:
I'd say in my kids' primary school probably only 5/30 are only children. Very mixed intake ethnically and class wise.

Of my NCT group 4/8 are only children. It's an older demographic and probably more wealthy overall.

I think the stats are misleading. I read somewhere that it includes people who have 1 baby...regardless of the fact it would be a physical impossibility to have had another one yet...and of course these people could then go on to have multiple kids. Even people with 5 kids had an 'only child' at one point!
My DS is an only and there was only one other in his primary class and I rarely come across others...2 is by far the most common.

On my cul de sac!

There are 21 houses. 10 have children in them. All only childs except my house and one other neighbour. Only one baby out of these houses, rest school age

I am an only child and growing up never met another.
In my now 13 year old’s class in primary, one only child. Parent’s were young and split up but coparent well. Mum remarried but no kids.
In my 10 year old’s class 1 only child (11) parents mid to late forties.
My 5 year old’s class, two kids are only children.
School in a former working and still classed as disadvantaged but with massive tech, hospitals and universities close by, there’s a mix of very wealthy kids that attend get free school meals. Now all primary schools in Ireland get free school meals.

Whilst the number of one kid families have grown, in my experience two kid families are still the most common followed by one kids and close by three kids.
The wealthiest kids in my kids class have 2-3 siblings, with divorce and remarriage means some have 4+ siblings. So in my limited experience, there are more three kid families than one kid family. Even in my neighbourhood, I have 3, my next door neighbour just had a third last year, across from me has 3 and her next neighbour has 3. Two families down the road have two kids and another has 1.

I have an only. As far as I can tell there’s only one other in her year group and two in the year below.

I found this to be true. Wealthier families that I know have a minimum of three kids, some 4 and 5. Only marriage. And as someone wrote further down, one kid families around us with older parents did so with IVF. One neighbour had a baby at 47.

My son’s nursery class is a mixed bag. I’d say around a third of them are only children.

My sister has an only, I have 3 and other sister 4.
Of school friends, there's me, two with 2 each and 1 only.
Uni friends there me, one with 3, one with 2 and 2 onlys.
School Mom Friends though is all 3s or 2s

I found it strange but my son’s class only has one only child in the class of 30. I thought the same as you but I think it’s just co-incidental!

It's the opposite around me - I am the only one of my siblings and close friends who has more than one child. It must be 10 or more families in my immediate vicinity who only have one and aren't considering more. My daughter's two best friends at school are also only children. Siblings are rare in my circle.

I know loads. Most of our friends stopped at 1 (including us) and 1/3 of the school year were only children too

In private school! DD’s state primary class (32 kids) she was the only ‘only’ all others had siblings or step siblings.
In her private primary class of 18, half are only children. We can only afford private because we only have one child, suspect it’s the same for quite a few people.

Same OP. We’re East Anglia and we’re the only one child family I know very unusual here, despite reading on here how popular one child families are now! Wish we knew more, feel like outcasts!

In my daughter's class there are 7 out of 12 only children - private school seem to have higher numbers!

I have an only and several friends with one child, I think DD is one of few in her class though. Really varies tbh

Around half of DS' current class are onlies, him included. We live in the south thigh so may e cost of living plays a part, also almost all of the families have two working parents few SAHMs

Three siblings in my family & we all have one child each.
DD has a few friends who are only children and in her class I know of 6 out of 30 - and I don’t know all the 30 kids.
We are south west.

my niece us an only and I know if 3 others in her year but in my sisters not group 8 years ago 4 out of the 7 still have an only child

Weirdly my DS is the only only in his class.

In our street there's only one. Five families with two kids, four families with three kids. So only one kid out of 23 who is an only child here I guess.

In my familie no-one has only kids either. They have zero or two/three.

My son is an only as are his two best friends. I’m an only as were both my mother & father & two of my grandparents.

About 1/3 of DD’s year 1 class of 30 are onlies and half of our NCT group of 8 stopped at one. In comparison, only 2 in her class are families with 3 kids, smaller definitely seems to be favoured around our neck of the woods.

They are all in my middle son’s class! I get looks of horror or sympathy because I have 3. I’d say only children are the norm in my area (South London) some have 2. Very few have 3 or more.

Oo I wonder if there's data on this....town V country, North V South, stuff like that.

Have just moved from a city in the south where we knew a tonne of only children and only one family with more than 2, to a village in the north where only children are very much in the minority and some families have 4+ children! I've been (very unscientifically) putting it down to larger/cheaper houses and more local family support.

More common amongst the people I knew pre having children though is to remain childfree completely. I lived in a house share for 5 years, had 9 housemates in that time (not simultaneously). Only 1 other has chosen to become a parent, to an only child. The others have very vocally opted out (as opposed to struggled with fertility). We're all late 30's/early 40's now.