Generation X
is less likely to have bred than the Boomers:
Women in their mid-40s today are almost twice as likely to be childless as their parents' generation, new figures show. The statistics look at how many children women have had by the age of 46 - when their childbearing days are considered over.
And they reveal one in five women who were born in 1969 are childless today - compared to one in nine women born in 1942.
Meanwhile two children remains the most common family size for middle-aged women today and the previous generation, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. However whereas one in 10 women born in 1969 had four or more children, compared with around one in six women born in 1942.
There are no signs this trend is likely to reverse, with those who turned 30 last year typically having slightly fewer children than their parents and grandparents.
These are UK statistics, not the USA, but I have little doubt that the same holds true in America as well based on my anecdotal observations. My impression is that a reluctance to get married, and getting married later, is the primary culprit.