Voluntary childlessness, also called being childfree, describes the voluntary choice not to have children. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing not to have children was both difficult and undesirable (except for celibate individuals).
Research shows that not having kids can raise the risk of certain health issues, like breast cancer. However, having kids can also raise the risk of cardiovascular disease for some women, and in others it can lead to chronic pain.
Some express concern that child-free adults will regret the decision not to have children, especially later in life. But Watling Neal explained “we found no evidence that older child-free adults experience any more life regret than older parents.
Our estimate of the number of childfree people is much higher than past national studies, which placed the percentage between 2% and 9%. This likely happened because our measurement focuses on a person's desire to have children, not their ability.
Some people feel they cannot afford it. Health/medical reasons. This is one of the top reasons people decide not to have children—a risk to their own health and well-being, or inability to conceive. Other caretaking responsibilities and/or other children in their lives.
Young adults are overwhelmingly deciding not to have children as a result of the high cost of living, according to exclusive research commissioned by Newsweek.
Research shows that there is a “happiness bump” that parents experience right after a baby is born. But that tends to dissipate over the course of a year, Glass says. After that point in time, the levels of happiness of parents and non-parents gradually diverge, with non-parents generally growing happier over time.
It's normal to experience a range of emotions about the decision to not have children, including sometimes feeling sadness, regret, or self-doubt. If these feelings become overwhelming or start to have a negative impact on your life or mental health, consider speaking with a therapist.
Being childless can be a personal choice or the fate of infertility. While it does not mean you dislike children, it does allow for more time to invest in other things. Regardless of the reason you do not have children, you can be happy, as life without children can be very rewarding and fulfilling.
A 2012 study of 21,000 childless couples undergoing fertility treatment found that over a nine-year period, the ones who eventually had a child–biologically or through adoption–had a risk of death from any cause one-fourth that of those who remained childless.
Childless men and women have an overall higher mortality than adults with children, meaning that they die earlier, recent studies show.
Women without children have also been found to have an increased risk of breast cancer, and increased mortality from uterine, ovarian and cervical cancer when compared to women with children. Moreover, the fertility declines with the advanced age at first childbearing.
Essentially, the evidence we have suggests that having children can make you happier. It also can make you feel unhappy, or constantly stressed, or anxious, and so on. Overall, it seems like having children makes your emotional experiences more intense than if you don't have them.
The risks of miscarriage and stillbirth are higher in people who are older than 35. Also, multiple pregnancy is more common when you are older. As the ovaries age, they are more likely to release more than one egg each month.
Declines in marriage and fertility and increased cohabitation in the general population are starting to be reflected in the lives of aging adults. Of the 92.2 million adults ages 55 and older in 2018, 15.2 million (16.5%) are childless, defined here as having no biological children.
Most childless couples compensate by developing strong friendships and networks. But they must prepare earlier, and more thoroughly, for older age, without the ability to rely on children for support.
The American Sociological Association recently conducted a study on this very topic and found that parents are more likely to be depressed than their childfree counterparts. In fact, people without kids were happier than any other group, including empty nesters.
In the first year, childless couples were more than three times as likely to get divorced as couples who had a baby. After that, the 'divorce risk' curve flattened out, and after 12 years the researchers could no longer see a significant difference between couples who had babies and those who did not.
The major disadvantages are lack of companionship/being alone/loneliness, lack of support and care when older, and missing the experience of parenthood.
The Silent Generation, also known as the Traditionalist Generation, is the Western demographic cohort following the Greatest Generation and preceding the Baby Boomers. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1928 to 1945.
That is why the generations today each span 15 years with Generation Y (Millennials) born from 1980 to 1994; Generation Z from 1995 to 2009 and Generation Alpha from 2010 to 2024.
Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha for short) is the demographic cohort succeeding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 2010s as starting birth years and the early-to-mid 2020s as ending birth years (see Date and age range definitions).