Highest percentage of women unmarried and childless by 2030

[Nelly10]

I read recently the way society is going by 2030 they’ll nearly half unmarried and childless women between 25-44.

Apparently this is already a thing in china a lot of women are going it alone solo parenting.

I have my opinions on why, just wondered what anyone else’s thoughts were ?

How are childless women in China doing solo parenting?

Single, childfree women tend to be the happiest group when scientists attempt to measure these things. I think it's great.

Isn’t women in China becoming single/solo parents (IVF/sperm donor I’m assuming) a result of their one child policy and the long term effect that had.

However, I agree that more women will stay single as they have their own incomes women are staying single rather than being stuck in bad relationships

I think these are totally hyperbole headlines.

Clue nro.1 : ages 25-44z
There is nothing even worth mentioning of a 25 yo not having children (yet) or married.

nro.2 unmarried: that doesn’t mean single.
And again, 25 yo not being married really isin’t news worthy.

Had it started from age 40, it would have been actually worthy study/article/interesting news.
There is this odd narrative now that women want and choose to stay single/childfree (and I say this as an single and childfree woman in her 30’s) and how women need no man and men are sad, or angry, about this.
Or that massive number of women are bow gay/bi and dating women.
But I’m not seeing this in the real world.
Most women still want to date men very much and do the whole marriage and kids stuff.
And many put up with bad behaviour from men to have it.

So I don’t understand why lie like this.
There has been many stories like this in the past few years.
But like I said, most women want men and will put up with anything to have/keep him.

I have no idea what the agenda behind these articles are?
To make men angry and start voting more conservative or something?
It’s very weird, whatever their reasonings are.

'Unmarried' doesn't mean they aren't in a committed relationship though, does it?

Found the incel.

I'm single, have never married, have one ds who I have raised alone. I have a career, house, pension etc.

I spent 25 years looking for a life partner who would respect me as an equal and wanted children (or a child). I met only one man, where we both wanted to marry, but he didn't want children.

Other than that, my experience is few men want to share a life equally, and I didn't want to settle. So when I found myself with a surprise pregnancy and became an older mum, it was an easy solution. Since then I have had one relationship but after a couple of years he wanted me to 'get rid of DS' who was 9 at the time. I got rid of him instead.

I regret the lack of an intimate and loving partner, but I look around at my married friends and few of them seem to be very happy so perhaps I didn't miss out. When DS is an adult, I may try again to find a partner but I won't marry.

I think this stems from "women should have / do it all" and a cost of living crisis

It's still a relatively recent phenomenon that a significant % of women go to university and have a career in the grand scheme of things. This delays having children and also gives women a choice - a choice because they can afford NOT to settle / to NOT have children if they so wish due to financial independence.

It's expensive to have children. Most educated people tend to agree it's best to be in a financially stable situation first. Married - expensive, home purchased - expensive, certain level in career to afford those two life stages - takes time and again delays having children.

I lived in China for 5 years. I asked female colleagues if they'd have more than one child. They said "no, it's too expensive and I wouldn't be able to give them everything. My parents gave me everything they could and I want to afford to give my child everything too. I would feel like my child would lose out if I have another'.

With delays in settling down, achieving financial stability, riding out a career, etc. people start TTC later and it's harder to fall pregnant as you age. This leads to issues with affording IVF or simply missing the boat, thereby reducing the number of children born. Some people end up with no children or fewer children because they unfortunately can't have them.

The age bracket is misleading, I'd be more interested to see how many % have kids aged 40. At 25 most people these days aren't thinking about having kids.

I have a friend who pursued a family as a solo parent with donor sperm in her 40s. She is exceptionally well off and has a strong career. She relies on her mother and nanny for support, she moved out of the city and capitalised on wfh post-pandemic.

@fleur89 is right about looking at women aged 40. At 40 I was childless and single. By 45 I'd given up on men in general and had a child.

🤣🤣🤣

There’s STILL men out there who spouts this non-sense?!

So many women date (and marry and procreate) with ugly,dumb,broke,misogynystic,useless…etc men.

Go outside sometimes and see it for yourself!

I have children and am single and I think it's possibly the best way to bring up children. Have a great relationship with their dad, he just wasn't ready to be tied to a full time relationship and domestic life. I'm not sure he'll ever be ready. That was my fault for imagining two children would make him grow up quicker!
I have no intention of getting in another relationship. In my opinion this is what messes kids up, mum and dad moving partners in and then splitting up and being distracted by relationship drama. The friends I know who have moved on quickly did so mostly for financial reasons. If employers paid enough for a single person to live, this wouldn't happen as much. No one should be forced to move a strange person into their child's home just because they can't pay the bills on their own. The child's well-being should come first.

I think it's brilliant.

Women/girls are slowly realising that one really doesn't need a man at all to be happy.

In fact, it's the contrary.

Another observation about china is their women are very hardworking, I guess the product of being an only child have having the pressure that men traditionally had sat on their shoulders too as the family hier. I would say solo parenting over there tends to be reserved for the wealthy as there's actually an abundance of men due to the one child policy. It's just women have developed higher expectations of what they want from a man and if it's not enough for them they'd rather go it alone. There's choice now and we are globally connected. You no longer have to settle for your local neighbour in the village. You can choose to connect with someone on the other side of the world, or dismiss the concept of marriage entirely.

I fell pregnant before I got married, albeit I have been with my now-husband for over a decade. Single has a loose definition. Could I have been single when I fell pregnant? In China where I was living I was a spinster on my visa application and census form at that time. Would I have been counted as a single mother? Perhaps. Despite a strong long term relationship to a man I'm now married to

The headline does not tell us much though does it? In my experience, nowadays many couples in committed relationships either don't want to get married, or don't get married until they have children. Many couples are having their children later than in previous decades for lots of reasons but including the cost of housing and child-care meaning that many young couples feel that that can't afford to have children. It doesn't necessarily mean that women are no longer in committed relationships with men, or that women don't want children.

Well men are shit nowadays aren't they?

I'd be single if I hadn't met my husband.

I'd be childless if I had to put them in full time nursery at 9 months old and go back to work full time.

It was an optimistic time in this country and the world when I had my kids.

I'm not sure I'd make the same decision when the Conservative Party members can inflict a Prime Minister on the rest of us whose Budget trashes our economy. and puts our mortgage up £500 a month.

Wages haven't gone up since 2008.

Nobody can afford kids under those circumstances.

Then there's the climate crisis.

Is it fair to bring children into a world that we are turning into a unliveable wasteland?

Our own government plans to gaslight us that water companies spreading human shit across the country is actually a good thing and not pollution at all. It's nutrients!

Ha definitely not an incel just done the school run.

Sorry I meant in china women are doing solo parenting.

I think a lot of the opinions are valid. I personally think women have a much rawer deal these days we’re expected to work full time and 100% of care of the children if we chose to have a family. I don’t think ‘men’ are actually proper men these days.

I was brought up by a very old school dad, extremely family oriented. Hands on dad too, I can go to him for anything diy or emotional support I’ve been really blessed in that respect.

Very unfortunately my daughter won’t have the same experience. I will also be educating her more than I was in regards to having a good career and being independent.

I think it’s more a man’s world than ever now! And that’s why women will chose to do it alone or not at all.

Incel cimment was for this poster, not you.

They weren't calling you an incel, Alex98o's post has incel vibes about it - it's all about the Chads and Stacys you see blah blah blah, which is why he can't get laid and is very angry...

I agree with you OP, having a traditional family set up is much more expensive and less simple these days. Many women (like me) simply see the potential for drudgery and lack of appreciation. So many men aren't willing or able to step up and actually co-parent, even though the women are earning a similar amount.

It's expensive.
And if you have a child you are stuck with the dad for 18 years, perhaps not in the same house but your options can be curtailed.

As education is available for all as well as effective birth control, women can avoid having to shack up with some useless entitled lump.

The decent men do get married, stay married and have kids. So perhaps the survey could be rephrased: nearly half the men by 2030 will be so inadequate no women wants them near them.

But that would upset the mysognistic right wing press, so best frame it that it's all the women's fault for having impossible standards it couldn't possibly be anything to do with the quality of the men could it!

Yes, damn those pesky women and their high standards...

I agree with the poster who said that starting at 25 is ridiculous, irrelevant hyperbole.

The average age of first time motherhood in the UK is about 31.

Likewise loads of people don't get married before their 30s either, or at all.
They're usually not single though.

Very weird age range the author had chosen.

frozendaisy
so best frame it that it's all the women's fault for having impossible standards it couldn't possibly be anything to do with the quality of the men could it!
Yes, I agree. Whenever there is an article in the Times about a woman having a child alone through IVF, the frothing from men in the comments is ridiculous - how dare this woman bypass a man and take control. She is condemning this child to a life without a father etc.
When I and others point out that most women try to have a family with a committed man and can't find them, or more importantly that men are far more likely to leave their children than women - so the women end up parenting alone anyway, they get stroppy.

But this is actually a really bad thing for society.

If 50% of the male population are considered undesirable and unsuitable, then mathematically, the remaining 50% will be seeking (likely) monogamous relationships with 50% of the female population, because there is broadly a 50/50 split across genders.

So by definition, only the top 50% of women in the world, set by a male criteria, will get to have children. Ironically, that would create a more patriarchal society.

But that in itself is a change isn't it?

Our grandparents were probably married at 19, our parents at 26,

One of my husbands grandmothers had a baby about every two years from 20-40.

@Farmageddon you should try The Telegraph that's even funnier!