Apparently in 2030, 45% of women ages 25–44 will be single and childfree. Do you think this will happen?

[YouAreNotBatman]

https://medium.com/hello-love/study-predicts-45-of-women-will-be-single-by-2030-1fbc99bad6a8

Came across this article.
And as much as I (single/childfree woman) would like this to be true, just so there would be more like-minded people and the stigma of being single and childfree woman would lessen.

I really don’t think this is going to happen.
Most people are still higgly conventional and traditions seem to stick in strong.

And also: putting young age 25 is jist silly, by the next 5-10 years most of those women will be married/have kids.
And what I’ve seen happening in dating life is that labels have changed, but it’s still the same old, same old.
Many insist they are ’casual’ or have areagment or new word for dating, but they are basically just plain old dating/in a relationship.

(My brother and his wife, no children); friend in same town an unmarried long term couple, no children, closest friend from uni days married, no children; closest friend from sixth form days unmarried no children; work colleagues my age, of three only 1 has a child. I'm the anomaly most of the time, the one with children.

This is what I’m thinking.
As someone who has been single (as in alone, no arragments - since it seems like single doesn't actually mean single) and childfree and I’m just about to turn 37.
I just haven’t seen anything like this, and I have looked for people more or less like me.

And agreed how other’s view you.

PhD and no research skills? Hmm.

Here's one to get you started, https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=world+health+organisation+female+education+fertility&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1684851168564&u=%23p%3DXx3kiMa0RboJ

Really? I'd be fucking minted if my salary was just for me on my own, rather than being the highest earner in a five person household.

I totally disagree. It is unaffordable for some. For people on low and single incomes, there just isn’t the extra money to feed another mouth and provide all that children need. You need only look at the rise in food banks and the stories reported by schools to see that there are many families struggling to feed their children.

You need a suitable home too. A 1 bed flat won’t work long-term for a family. If you can’t afford more than that, it makes having children feel prohibitive.

So would I. Plus I wouldn't live where I lived if it wasn't for DD. I'd live in a cute 1 bedroom apartment in the centre of town, filled with books and cats.

I will be 45 in 2030 and most definitely without children. I decided at age 15 that kids were not for me. But I am also not highly educated (only went as far as A levels) and been mentally ill since my late teens. Also never had a relationship.

But when I was just an average teenager I already knew that I really did not like the idea of having children at all. My dream goals are to rent a property (or secure a council property, yeah right!) with a garden so I can have a pet!

You equate the ability to search Google with actual research skills...bless you.

You sent a link to a 14 year old report by the WHO.
Nowhere in it are there figures pertaining to women's level of education and the likehood of having children.
Which is the statement YOU made, and claimed to be founded in well know fact, remember?

Go ahead and send me all those credible sources that demonstrate that you are right and I am wrong...I'll wait.

Known*

Society has definitely changed for the better in that women have far more choices now-there’s still judgement out there, but I imagine that’ll fade over time.

DH and I are the only ones in our family to have children, his siblings have chosen to be childfree. It was the right choice for us and the right choice for them.

The family dynamic is unusual now in that at family get-togethers, there are two teenagers and then the next youngest person is 47. 😂

Education-wise, one sibling has a PhD, one has an undergraduate degree, and the rest of us have Master’s degrees.

If you think that your own personal experience (3 kids and a PhD) trumps what is, again, a commonly observed, researched, and documented phenomenon at the demographic level, then I really don't know what to tell you.

Maybe the PhD wasn't such good value for money in your case.

Lots of data here in case anyone wants to read it, instead of making things up.

@Piggywaspushed That’s very positive data, IMHO, suggesting that more women are establishing themselves before having children.

All you have to do is reveal your sources to prove your point but yet, you haven't.

Why is that?

The “happiness expert” Paul Dolan’s fiction book Happy Ever After was widely debunked by the scientific community and he retracted those conclusions because being an amateur, he misread the American Time Use Survey Results when he came up with the idea that single, child free women ate happier and live longer. He was wrong.

Read to the end and you will see the huge increase within a generation of women not having any children at all - either by choice or for other reasons.

For those keen to find research into singlehood which is robust and highly regarded see Klinenberg (2012). There is an increased identification of solo living as being a 'mark of status'.

I never said my personal circumstances means that your statement is wrong. I said I didn't think it to be true, but not based on my circumstances. Also stated I am happy to be proven wrong when provided with evidence which you have yet to do.

Sorry this is @FellPuck

Whether single people are happy or not is a red herring (although Chandler also found this to be true). The fact is they exist. In increasing numbers.

The majority of people living alone are 16-64 with a slight bias towards men.

@Piggywaspushed Yes, I completely agree with Dr. Jo Mountfield’s comnent that “Choosing when to have children is a personal decision that should be fully respected and supported, as should the decision to have no children.”

30 is not the end of a woman's reproductive years.

Among women who turned 45 last year almost one in five – 18% – were without children, a big rise compared with the 13% of their mothers’ generation who did not become a parent.

That generation had the lowest level of childlessness on record. They are an anomaly and the media continues to mislead on this. 1 in 4 is the historical norm. More women than ever are having children, they're just having them at a later age and fewer than gen before.

Eh? How is that an anomaly? That's a trend! They are measuring women at the age of 45! And comparing them to their mothers' generation. Standard statistical practice.

The Total Fertility Rate has also dropped, tot he extent that right wing MPS are frothing about it. There is no such thing as 'historical' norm. That's like saying people still don't get divorced because fewer people were divorced in 1970 so the norm is not to divorce. Or like saying we are imagining the drop in marriage rates because 'historically everyone gets married'.

@lieselotte Im 50 next month and im child free by choice. It was seen as so unusual when i was younger that i was on three seperate TV chat shows talking about this choice