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Fertility rates for women in their 20s are the lowest since records began

Photo credit: Ashley Armitage / Refinery29 for Getty Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: Ashley Armitage / Refinery29 for Getty Images - Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

Newsflash: women in their twenties are having less children than ever before. New data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that the average age of women giving birth in 2019 was 30.7 years - a figure which has been gradually increasing since the 1970s.

What's perhaps more interesting, though, is that fertility rates for women under the age of 30 are now at their lowest levels since records began all the way back in 1938, meaning that we're way less likely to have kids young than the generations before us. And, well, it's not exactly hard to see why.

With maternity leave meaning you have to put your career on hold (not to mention the drop in income) - which can have a ripple effect in the years afterward - lots of women are waiting longer to take the plunge into motherhood so they can get ahead at work. Plus, with the cost of housing being so extortionate - and many people preferring not to squeeze a child into their flat-share in Hackney - plenty are waiting until they're in a more stable position before they get pregnant.

Overall, less babies are being born altogether (640,370 were welcomed to the world in England and Wales last year), but confirming the theory that's it's definitely deemed more preferable to wait longer to have a baby these days, the data also reveals the only age group to see an increase in fertility rates (so, the number of women having children) was women over the age of 40.

Photo credit: Ashley Armitage / Refinery29 for Getty Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: Ashley Armitage / Refinery29 for Getty Images - Getty Images

In the 80s and 90s - our parents' generation - the most common age for women to have babies was 25-29, but all that has changed now. This latest research show's way more people are having kids between 30 and 34 in today's world.

And this trend of women having children later - and fewer children overall - is actually quite a positive thing in some ways, according to Clare Murphy, Director of External Affairs at BPAS (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service). "In many ways these figures tell a story of success. The increasing age of motherhood is a reflection of improved gender parity, especially greater female participation in both higher education and the workplace," she says.

"However, financial factors also weigh heavily on family planning decisions. The job market has never been more precarious, and we know the current crisis has hit women’s employment particularly hard. As a result we may well see these trends continue into the future as women and couples choose to delay having children until they are financially stable."

The ongoing battle we have as potentially childbearing women, of course, is that our fertility doesn't last forever. Women under the age of 30 (who aren't using contraception) are believed to have only a 20% chance of getting pregnant each month, and by the age of 40, this drops to about a 5% chance. Which isn't ideal when, for so many, there's a clear benefit of waiting until you're a bit older to start a family, because it gives you time to get your life together a bit more.

Whether you decide to have children young, wait until you're mid-to-late thirties or beyond, or whether you don't have children at all - as long as you make the decision that's right for you, that's all that matters.

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