Fewer women want to have children

More and more young women are hesitant about having children in most developed countries. New Swedish research shows that one in four are either unsure about or do not want to have children at all – a big increase compared to 2014, when only one in ten felt this way.

The new study is based on survey responses from 596 women, all of whom visited a gynecology clinic in Uppsala, Sweden. The majority of the respondents were students, and the average age was 24 years. The researchers’ analysis showed that 75% stated that they wanted to have children – significantly fewer than in 2014, when a similar survey showed that as many as 91% wanted to have children.

What the researchers say: “That one in four women do not want children or are unsure about wanting to have children – that’s a very high proportion,” the lead author told us. “We already know that the birth rate is declining, but we didn’t know whether this could be explained by other factors, such as fertility problems. Our study shows that it may be that some women simply do not want to have children, and that this in turn may be due to uncertainty about the future, as the world has become a less predictable place in recent years.”

The no-child women also provided survey responses explaining why they did not want children. The researchers divided their responses into five categories. Most stated that they had no desire to have children or to become a parent, with the second largest group stating that they did not want to have children for health reasons, such as having a disease that they did not want to pass on. The third largest group said that they valued their freedom, while the fourth stated economic reasons. And the fifth group were concerned about overpopulation or saw the future as uncertain due to climate change.

“It’s good that we now have a somewhat better idea of how they are thinking,” the researchers explained. “And it’s also good for politicians to know, so that they can respond to these concerns.

Some of the more interesting findings of the survey were:

• 75% of all the respondents wanted to have children in the future; 16% of them already had, with an average of 2 children

• 8% of women said they did not want to have children, and 16% said they were unsure.

• 28% had thought about freezing their eggs.

• 63% stated that they were asked for consent prior to their most recent sexual activity. 98% experienced behavioral or verbal consent prior to their most recent sexual activity.

• 60% used condoms during their first sexual intercourse. This compares with 71% in 2014, and 77% in 1999.

• 80% stated that they were heterosexual, compared to 91% in 2014.

• The age of first intercourse had dropped from 17.6 in 1989 to 16.8 in 2023.

• On average, the women had had 11.7 sexual partners, compared to 12.1 in 2014 and 4 in 1989.

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My take: A similar study, if carried out in most European, Asian and North American, countries, would probably come up with similar results.

Most countries outside of Africa have birthrates of 2.1% or less (India, the most populous country on Earth has a birth rate of 1,94%).

The world is rapidly depopulating. This may be a good thing for the plane and for national budgets since we will need far, far fewer workers in the Age of AI and Robotics.