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.

? I don’t agree that is prime employment age as most women work from 16 to 67? But 25 to 44 is actually the prime marriage + childbearing ages?
-ONS assumes women’s childbearing go from 15 to 45
-35yrs old is average age of first marriage

So I think author has used 25-45 to cover for prime childbearing and also cover the range +/- 10yrs of when women first get married

Met a woman the other day who declared her only goal in life had been to get married and have children.

That smacks of lacking ambition or imagination. Especially since I'm now dating her ex husband 😳

Why did they split up @Oopsiedaisyy

Yes because any role that is traditionally a woman’s life goal is not worthy of any respect at all. Only roles that were traditionally for men are the ambitious and imaginative life goals. 🤨

I do not like this sort of dark judgemental streak in some feminist thought.

Wait, does ’single’ mean ’just not married’ somewhere in the world?

Around here it means not dating, not having a partner, alone.
That’s single to me.

Met a woman the other day who declared her only goal in life had been to get married and have children.

Did she grew up in a very backwards family, religious maybe?
I mean this kind of desperation didn’t come from nowhere.
As judgemental as our society is and pushes women to be wives and mothers, this woman is really extra, I know there are families who really raise daughters to believe that this is their only worth in life.
Very sad.

That’s how the article is defining single. I think it’s a silly definition.

Amazing what a difference a couple of years make. I am 48 and no one thought it was weird at all.

I mean, you asked for a link, I gave you a link, you dismissed the link because it disagrees with you.

Now you're asking for sources so that you can dismiss those too lol. I won't bother wasting my time with that, weirdly enough 😂

It's not a matter of personal opinion, whether you or I agree that it's prime employment age or not. It's literally what the study is aimed at, written down in black and white: "Based on Census Bureau historical data and Morgan Stanley forecasts, 45% of prime working age women (ages 25-44) will be single by 2030—the largest share in history—up from 41% in 2018." The fact that it's employment they are interested in makes sense if you actually read the article.

What the author of the Medium article believes is conjecture, just an opinion piece. I can take the stats and offer my opinion that 45% of women between 25-44 will own a pet, scientifically it's equally not backed by any data.

Yes, I did see that and wondered how they’d come up with it because prime working age is defined as 25-54 according to the IFS? Do you think that the author has done a typo?

Not childfree, but yes to that many being single. We are seeing the light..

The link you sent didn't contain ANYTHING in it that supported your claim!!!

You could easily win this debate by providing just one of the apparently many sources that are well known and readily available. Despite me frequently requesting this you have failed to provide a link that even mentions the words 'women's education' and 'number of children'

I suspect that's because your claim is unfounded. A quick google this end reveals:-

not only are highly educated women more likely to have children these days, they are also having bigger families than in the past. Among women with at least a master's degree, six-in-ten have had two or more children, up from 51% in 1994.

It was really underwhelming 'chatting' with you fell. I'm out.

Not sure about single but child free is possible I think.

I'm early 40s and in my close friendship group of ten women 50% of us don't have (and won't have) DC.

Some by choice, some not by choice, some a kind of mix of both (me).

Well if it means not married then yes I don’t think it’s wrong. However ‘single’ in 2030 should mean not in a relationship surely.
There is a huge difference. Many, many women are not exactly single but they are not married.
I also think the age range is a bit odd. Women do have children at 45 and older. This figure is on the increase. Also women do have children before they are 25.
As for being child free- no I disagree. Only approximately 18% of 45 year old women are child free ( have never had a child). This figure is not going to rocket to 45% in a couple of years that’s ludicrous.
There is correlation between how educated and how good a career a woman has and the age when she has her first child. It tends to be the less well educated women who have children at a young age. They are also more likely to be in less well paid jobs.
More children from broken homes for want of a better word and relationship breakdowns- these will rise.

Ultimately this is why I haven't had DC.

To be fair I know women who still struggle to get sterilised even now. There is often huge pressure to have children. Off the top of my head I know 3 close friends who were refused sterilisation. None of them have regretted not having a child/more children.
Actually another friend springs to mind. She has children and it took her years to get a doctor to agree to her being sterilised.

The whole article is a bit odd, I agree the age ranges used do not match the official definitions of prime working age or total childbearing age that they claim they do. There’s no real detail on how they calculated the % although presumably it is an average across the entire age range but honestly so many women would have been married and divorced between 25 and 45 so how is that reflected?

It feels like their objective was to have a click bait headline and they manipulated age ranges and filters to get to one.

All lifestyle choices have pros and cons. It's not a competition.

I think that marriage is genuinely assumed to be a situation where there is a financial partnership/you are a financial unit. So if you're not married you are single in the sense that you're not pooling your resources with a partner- even if you do have a partner with whom you are in a romantic relationship.

Obviously many people live together and pool resources without being married but that doesn't have the legal protections of a marriage.

Nobody's salary is just for them "on their own" - we all have to pay for housing and to stay alive, with all the bills associated with that. Housing and bills and the need to eat still exist when you don't have kids - I just don't have the second income to help me cover them all.

I accept that I don't have to feed and clothe 3 children as well as myself, but no, I'm not "fucking minted", and the weird myth that all childless people are is really annoying, frankly.

Women in this age cohort (at least 18-30 sort of range) are out-earning men now, so it's difficult to find a suitable partner.

My daughter in her mid 30s and 100% of her friends are child free and single through choice

They have lots of fun together why should that be Compromised?

Doesn't say much, since they aren't even the expected age to have kids in some areas, and alike people group together anyway.

It is also possible to be married/ in a relationship and (happily) childfree. It's not all or nothing. We should be celebrating the fact that women now have real choices in their lives, and hoping that we can move towards a time when nobody is judged for whatever choice they make.