Do most families have two or three children?

[Pleaseenter]

In your experience are two child or three child families more common?
If you have three kids how did you find the jump to three?

Thread has nothing to do with the recent news about benefits so no comments telling me to get a job haha

Area and demographic dependent. Most people have the number they can afford so 2 is probably most common. Allows for a sibling relationship and the world is set up for 2 children.
You will notice people who are on benefits often have more ( State provide bigger house, benefits etc) or more well off who can afford the extra child.

I have 3!
1, I can afford 3 we have professional jobs and large house.
2, Due to very sad childhood involving childhood cancer in my family ( more than one case) 2 was just not enough.
3, I had 2 of the same sex and got fed up with the negative comments and pity so I went and had one of the opposite sex! (I say this in jest but I did have 2 the same then opposite and most people think this is the reason I have 3, they don't know about reason number 2)

So take whichever stereotype you want from my personal decision. But I love having 3 and it was the best decision for us. It is absolutely not the best decision if you can't afford it though.

I have four.
My brothers have one, and two.
Most of my friends have three or four.

The most common family sizes I know are either zero kids (the vast majority intentionally) or two kids.

Id say one kid and three kids are probably about equal after that. Maybe slightly more have 1 kid.

nuclear family
two children

It depends on the population as well. In some cultures having many children is synonymous to success even if both parents are on benefits and the children are cosleeping in the living room.

Or have a big age gap. My friend has girls age 11 and 9 and boy age 2, the girls are SO helpful and she gets loads of one on one time when she has her days off with the baby when big girls at school or in the school hols when baby is at nursery

It's a pretty even split between 2/3 child families at DSs school and amongst my friends families.
I think there's only 2 or 3 only children in DS1s class.

We stuck at 2 as we couldn’t afford another maternity leave and the cost of moving to 3 is also considering a bigger car, moving house, holiday accommodation that’s mainly for 4 etc. most of my friends have 1 or 2. A couple have three but that’s mainly as baby number 2 was twins or they’re on a second relationship and there’s a big gap between children.

Most people I know have 1 and aren’t planning for anymore. A few have 2. One has 3, but they had twins for their second pregnancy.

I know more people with 3 children than I know people with 2. Even less people with 1 child.

Yeah we'd have to convert the loft if our third child wasn't the same gender as our second. Wouldn't want to make eldest share their room because the age gap would be so big.

Most people I know have 2 kids. A few onlies (including us) , even fewer with 3. And 3 families with 4+. One has 6, no idea how they do it!

Two is most common in my social group

Followed by none

Then one

And then three.

Off hand, I can only think of one person with four

When I was a kid three seemed most common, followed by two then four

I dunno how typical that is but the birth rate deffo too low, so maybe you should go for three 😁

I have one. My siblings have none (and won’t), and at work, I have had several bosses that don’t have children. Work colleagues have 1-2 at most. Rare for me to hear more than 3 (I can’t recall anyone at the moment).

DH and I both have majority of childfree friends. We know one couple that has one.

My SIL has one. My cousin has 2.

We have two. It was costly creche for two. Think people have smaller families now. My friend has 3.

Out of the families I know most have 2, then probably an equal split between 1 and 3. Can only think of two families with 4dc. I have 3 - it is a lot more expensive, as so many things are designed for 2 adults/2 children. I like it though and wouldn’t change it (also wouldn’t have any more).

There's a couple of 4 child families at the DCs (Catholic) school...quite a few of my friends were one of four growing up but none of us could afford 4 DC now!

Oooh I’ve just worked this out.
I have 2 groups of friends now really, one group I made when I moved cities 15 years ago, and one group of Mum friends.
In the first group it averages 1.1, though, if everyone who wanted children could have had them, and have as many as they wanted, it would have been 1.6. None have more than 2. Several have 0 by choice.
Amongst my Mum friends the average is 1.6, and again, if everyone had had the number that they originally wanted the average would be 2.3. One of this group has 3.
The only person I know with 4 children is an old school friend. I think she’s bonkers but they seem so happy

Mainly 1 or 2 locally to me.

I know of a few with three.

I don’t know any with 4 or 5 and think it’s unlikely. No one has the time or money!

Three child families are very unusual among people I know. Two is most common and only children not far behind. I don’t know any families who chose to have a third in the last 5 years or so. I think the cost of living and nursery fees are putting people off.

It varies quite a lot round here. Of my childs class there are families with 5 or 6 but that's more unusual. 2 is still the most common at 40% of the families, then 1, 3, and 4 are about half that. Interestingly the bigger families of 4+ tend to be either on benefits or very well off and the ones on benefits.

What would you do if you had twins with one of each sex? It’s a lot more likely the older you are.

"There are estimated to be around 3.7 million one-child families in the United Kingdom as of 2023, with a further 3.38 million two-child families, and 1.18 million families that have three or more children."

3 or more is rare these days

I think you need to stop and ask yourself why your decision to have a third child or not would be remotely influenced by what other people are doing, or any statistics about what “most people” do.

You need to decide based on your own circumstances, and those alone.

just doesn't seem to be representative of what I see day to day

It's important to not extrapolate your experience to an entire country..