This isn't an anomaly. The number of childless women has been climbing steadily for the past seven years. Why? The Census Bureau opted not to explain it, but experts think it's pretty easy to figure out: Professional women are delaying motherhood to pursue their careers, and by the time they decide to start a family, it's often too late, reports Knight-Ridder.
Or maybe they don't decide. If a woman never makes the decision to have children, it gets made for her and she ends up childless like it or not. One such person is 39-year-old Teresa Alvarado, who confessed to Knight-Ridder, "A lot of us are saying it's probably not going to happen. I always thought that if I really wanted a child, I would adopt because there are plenty of Latino children who need parents. And that's still my safety net, if I decide I want to have a child."
Here are some interesting facts and figures from the U.S. Census Bureau:
- Women who live in metropolitan areas and are affluent are more likely to be childless.
- More than 47 percent of women who make more than $75,000 a year have no children.
- 40 percent of those who make less than $20,000 are childless.
- More than 50 percent of Asian-American women are childless.
- Latinas are the most likely ethnic group to have children.
In 1976, just 10 percent of women between the ages of 40 and 44 were childless. By 2000, that number had reached 19 percent, but in 2002, it dipped ever so slightly to 18 percent. At the same time, the number of mothers in the labor force has actually dropped since its peak in 1998 when 58.7 percent of moms worked. By 2002, that number was 54.6 percent. Even more telling, mothers of infants under 1 year old are more likely to be completely out of the work force than they are to be working full-time.
