Moms are back.
A new analysis of Census Bureau data shows that more women are having babies — and they’re not stopping at just a couple.
The Pew Research Center’s study said that in 2016, 86 percent of women 40 to 44, called “the end of their childbearing years,” were mothers. Ten years earlier, it was 80 percent.
And women are having an average 2.07 kids during their lives, up from 1.86 in 2006.
“The recent rise in motherhood and fertility may seem to run counter to the notion that the U.S. is experiencing a post-recession ‘Baby Bust,’” said Pew.
Pew added, “Not only are women more likely to be mothers than in the past, but they are having more children. Overall, women have 2.07 children during their lives on average – up from 1.86 in 2006, the lowest number on record. And among those who are mothers, family size has also ticked up. In 2016, mothers at the end of their childbearing years had had about 2.42 children, compared with a low of 2.31 in 2008.”
Other details:
- Women are becoming mothers later, at 26, compared with 23 in 1994.
- The majority of women ages 40 to 44 who have never married have had a baby. It’s up from 9 percent in 1994 to 15 percent in 2014.
- More women with postgraduate degrees are having babies.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
