Average age of first-time mothers is now 30 - how old were you?

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

Research published yesterday shows that the average British woman is now having her first child at the age of 30 - and we wondered whether this matches MNers' own experiences. So do share your thoughts - are you bang on average, or under, or over? Does it matter - and would you make the same decision again, given the chance?

I was bored....

Darn, this was meant to be the 500th post but here are the stats based on this thread so far. I only counted the age when the MN'er had their first baby. The average age came out at 29.5 The histogram shows the distribution of ages. It's funny how much more popular 23 is than 24

Mean, Median, Mode
Count: 443
Sum: 13066
Mean: 29.494356659142
Median: 30
Mode: 29

Data Set:
31, 28, 29, 21, 28, 29, 22, 34, 29, 34, 21, 33, 22, 32, 30, 34, 30, 17, 32, 26, 35, 30, 32, 23, 26, 28, 19, 29, 22, 20, 29, 23, 36, 25, 29, 28, 36, 27, 22, 26, 29, 30, 32, 31, 35, 31, 29, 29, 20, 27, 17, 26, 23, 27, 35, 33, 22, 39, 31, 39, 34, 36, 20, 25, 30, 31, 28, 26, 40, 22, 37, 38, 26, 30, 28, 28, 30, 20, 38, 30, 34, 29, 30, 27, 40, 27, 36, 29, 18, 46, 31, 32, 30, 32, 33, 29, 43, 27, 28, 33, 30, 32, 30, 40, 46, 31, 37, 36, 40, 27, 33, 27, 40, 35, 29, 36, 23, 25, 29, 32, 37, 25, 19, 31, 34, 32, 27, 23, 19, 16, 26, 32, 34, 29, 32, 39, 40, 38, 40, 32, 18, 37, 25, 18, 28, 29, 18, 26, 41, 28, 25, 34, 29, 33, 34, 27, 35, 42, 43, 25, 23, 32, 19, 23, 19, 19, 27, 23, 27, 20, 29, 23, 36, 33, 38, 18, 30, 27, 32, 40, 32, 19, 25, 39, 23, 17, 30, 30, 36, 25, 31, 37, 19, 35, 32, 33, 27, 40, 20, 31, 24, 23, 39, 33, 33, 34, 24, 29, 32, 20, 34, 29, 34, 38, 20, 25, 29, 19, 32, 28, 34, 35, 41, 23, 30, 37, 33, 31, 33, 39, 34, 30, 28, 27, 18, 28, 40, 28, 32, 32, 23, 31, 38, 35, 20, 30, 30, 32, 32, 37, 33, 28, 43, 19, 30, 22, 30, 32, 23, 24, 33, 30, 30, 28, 25, 29, 26, 38, 30, 23, 31, 32, 38, 23, 36, 23, 38, 33, 29, 32, 20, 33, 34, 32, 34, 20, 26, 35, 24, 27, 23, 22, 35, 36, 30, 24, 24, 31, 25, 25, 23, 24, 33, 20, 33, 36, 28, 27, 36, 31, 38, 42, 34, 30, 26, 35, 25, 41, 29, 33, 28, 18, 20, 31, 40, 35, 23, 24, 33, 43, 31, 18, 29, 35, 29, 42, 29, 22, 28, 29, 25, 19, 28, 33, 21, 18, 28, 23, 32, 20, 33, 35, 23, 19, 32, 21, 36, 29, 27, 25, 36, 17, 20, 24, 19, 30, 30, 32, 19, 22, 30, 21, 31, 31, 35, 42, 29, 27, 29, 18, 40, 29, 42, 30, 20, 22, 23, 35, 22, 32, 42, 40, 29, 28, 30, 40, 35, 30, 33, 31, 44, 23, 31, 37, 36, 31, 35, 29, 33, 25, 30, 20, 37, 28, 34, 23, 34, 35, 23, 15, 29, 23, 35, 26, 33, 28, 40, 42, 32, 21, 21, 27, 28, 35, 33, 39, 23, 33, 17, 33, 18, 29, 34

(Up to the 501'st post)

17

Just turned 32. I was one of the first among my friends. Good timing IMO.

Thanks for that EthicalPickle! Interesting that it's close to the national figures.

My first at 21 and my last at 46. It was harder on the body the older I was, but I am positive about motherhood at both ages.

Ooh, good work EthicalPickle - thanks for that I enjoy some nice stats

21

21

Lovely graph and data set EthicalPickle

I was 19 with my first, no regrets - especially with premature ovarian failure at 28!

I was 29 and emotionally immature. Dd made me grow up quick!

28, married, mortgaged and both felt time was right.

35 and 10 months to the day. Pure chance, given up on having dc (ttc age 25-28 with exh). Settled with dp, travelled moderately exotically, small house with mortgage. Redundant for 6 months and hey presto, blessed with DS. Unlikely planning would have made a difference, just grateful for what I have.

30

36. In my nhs antenatal group 30 was probably average with the range from about 26 to 36.

Younger than average with my first (19)
Just over average with my second (31)
36 with my third

It is great. No regrets about having a child this late. We got pg quite easily. We're set up financially, and I'm calm and patient, but still young enough to run around and play. The only worry is providing siblings!

17.......desperately wanted another @ 40 but husband had had vasectomy @ 28, had to do with what we had.

37 (11 days off being 38) and 39 (3 weeks off being 40).

I was 34.5 and 42.9. I was not given a choice in the matter as it took 12 years for me to get pg (mmc), then had Ds two years later, two more mc's then Dd. All were a bit of a surprise really.
If I could choose/change the timings? don't know really. Might just change the fathers instead!

24. I felt very young, which is ridiculous, as for the generation before me, I would have been decidedly average!

40...and I still felt too young

22

29. It was 3 weeks before my 30th birthday. Was the first among friends. Now 32 and TTC the second.

28 the first and 33 the second, both good ages for me.