The Changing Sands of Parenthood: Americans Reevaluate Family Plans

The Changing Sands of Parenthood: Americans Reevaluate Family Plans

Recent data from the Pew Research Center suggests that Americans are reconsidering whether they want to become parents. This could be part of a long-term trend, as a research team from Michigan State University found that the percentage of non-parents in the US who never want children has doubled in the last 20 years.

We found that the percentage of non-parents who do not want to have children increased from 14% in 2002 to 29% in 2023. During the same period, the percentage of non-parents who plan to have children in the future fell from 79% to 59%. “

Jennifer Watling Neal, study co-author and professor, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University

The study – published in theMarriage and Family Magazine–– Managing non-parents into different types, including “child-free” people who don’t want to have children, “child-free” people who wanted children but can’t have them, and “not-yet-parents” who want to have children in the future.

The researchers used data from the National Family Growth Survey, which surveyed 80,000 adults in seven waves between 2002 and 2023. Since most research using this data has focused on women's biological fertility, Watling Neal explained that this study is one of the first to consider both men and women, as well as desires for biological and non-biological children.

“We knew from our previous research that childfree adults were a large and growing group in Michigan,” said Zachary Neal, MSU professor of psychology and co-author of the study. “These new results confirm that this is part of a nationwide trend that has been unfolding for over 20 years.”

Different types of non-parents have different needs. One nonparent group whose needs are often discussed are childless adults who want to have children but have had difficulty proposing and who may be seeking fertility treatments. However, Neal noted that “relatively few non-parents are childless and the size of this group has been stable for many years.”

In contrast, as the population of childfree adults continues to grow, it is important that their unique needs are met. As Watling Neal explained, “Childfree adults have needs for long-term contraception and retirement planning that does not assume they will have heirs, but medical and financial services providers are often unequipped to meet these needs.”

The research team will next examine trends in non-parent types worldwide and the role that economics and politics can play.

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