Children are hit or miss. One day, you’ll meet the sweetest little angel who makes you so excited to be a parent one day, and then you meet a feisty toddler who makes you thank your lucky stars that child isn’t yours.
Everyone has different priorities in life; some take the career path, some the family path, others both. A trend that has been on the rise in America is adults simply not wanting to have children ever.
According to a recent study by Michigan State University, most people who currently do not have children made the decision to be child-free when they were younger. Many say that people will change their minds over time, but this study says otherwise.
Making up over one-fifth of the population, the survey found that 21.6% of child-free adults have not wanted children since they were young. The survey wanted to differentiate adults who did not have children with those who did not want children.
“People are making the decision to be childfree early in life, most often in their teens and twenties,” Jennifer Watling Neal, associate professor in the psychology department at MSU and co-author of the study, said. “And, it’s not just young people claiming they don’t want children. Women who decided in their teens to be childfree are now, on average, nearly 40 and still do not have children.”
Some say more adults don’t want children because of the restricted access they have to abortions since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but wanting children has been on the decline.
A Pew Research report from 2021 found that 56% of childless adults under the age of 50 who say it’s unlikely they’ll have a child simply do not want them. This could be for a myriad of reasons, but Pew points out that the leading factor is the financial burden.
Though this study mainly focused on Michigan residents, Neal observes that “if the pattern holds up nationally, it would mean 50 to 60 million Americans are childfree.” That would roughly be about 18% of the U.S. population that has absolutely no desire to have children.
It is important to note that for those who do not currently have or want children, most will likely not change their minds. What this study finds is that because these people made up their minds at a young age, they are more likely to be set in their ways.
Nowadays, many young people are prioritizing their career and job opportunities before having a family, which is not entirely a bad thing, but what this research study exposes is where the American mindset is today.
Esther Wickham is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
