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

Studies show that it varies greatly depending on background. ‘The share of families with three or more children varies from 14% in White British families to 41% in Pakistani families and 38% in Bangladeshi families.’ Sep 2022

https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/news/childrens-commissioner-for-england-launches-preliminary-findings-of-the-family-review-at-policy-exchange/

I always wonder about these statistics re one child families though. They are meaningless unless the people answering the question have definitively said they plan no more children.

Every family starts off as a one child family. (Except multiple births)

Im only in my mid twenties and no one in my family has ever had twins. That being said I'd have to convert my loft for my eldest then my middle child would share with the twin thats the same gender as them and the other twin would have eldests old room

@HotCrossBunplease

you can see the split over the last few decades here

www.statista.com/statistics/734771/family-sizes-uk/

Birth rates are declining and millennials choosing not to have children. This is going to become a problem soon.

My colleagues who are my age and older (40s, 50s, 60s) mostly have 3, and sometimes even 4, but I don’t know of any in their 30s with more than 2.

Most of my family (this generation) and friends had 2.

My parents, parents in law, and grandparents all had 3+

More families are only having 1dc.

I'm 66 so normal for my generation was between 3 and 10
Average 5.
Now l think it's 2 or 3.

Birth rates are declining and millennials choosing not to have children. This is going to become a problem soon.

It's already a problem, a big one!

I have 3 DC. Most families I know have 2 DC but I think I know more families with 3DC than 1 DC but mine are all teens now so things may be different if DC are younger.

I’m a gypsy so big families are the norm to me. I have 5, sister has 3 atm ( she wants one more) brother has 3 and done ( only because they have to go through ivf). Ex mother-in-law had 10. Irish travellers have the bigger family’s while gypsy typically have around 5.
gypsy/travellers have a village to help raise their children so it’s not isolating and a lot easier.

Those are just snapshots of families at various points in time though. How does that adjust for the difference between “one child at the moment” and “one child and no more” families?

Average number of children in uk family now 1.9 so just under 2 and no where near 3.

The average birth rate per woman last year was 1.4 so no, three is not common and even two is becoming less so.

How does that adjust for the difference between “one child at the moment” and “one child and no more” families?

It shows that some families go on to have 2 but not all. Think about birth rates and also the age of first time patents and how that has change.

Maybe this illustrates is more helpful?

illustration

"According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), women born in 1935 had an average of 2.42 children, whereas those born in 1969 had only 1.91. Women born in 1984, the ONS’s most recent cohort, have thus far had an average of 1.02 children (although because women today often have children when they are older, this figure may increase slightly)."

Or is the above more clear?

Most people I know who have children locally have 2. Also common to have 1 or 3; more than 3 is quite rare. I know 2 families with 4.

Interesting I would of thought the average for a woman born in 1935 to be a lot higher than 2.42

Most people I know have between 1 and 4. I know a couple of families with 5 plus. My mum came from a family of 16 people are always shocked when I tell them 🤣.

My 8 year old’s class

3 x 1 child families
23 x 2 child families
2 x 3 child families
1 x 4 child including older half siblings

I'm in south america and here 1 child is definitely the most common configuration, but that's because here people have to pay for private school as public éducation isn't fit for the purpose. If I'd been a citizen of this country, unless I was on a very high income, I'd probably have stopped at 1-2. As it is I had my third when we were fairly comfortable financially. I had to cut back on spending after she was born but not because of her. We'd have had to cut back regardless.

Things did change in other ways, my first two are less than two years apart and very close and I'm used to doing everything with them together, but my third is almost 4 years younger so she can't yet do the same things her brothers do. And it's annoying when an activity has an age limit and the older two can do it and not her. Though that can happen with two kids, too.

Worth it, in the end, though.

We have 3 (all teens), I am also 1 of 3. I think it is less common now (last 10 years) and the think more families have 1 child than 3.