--- title: More American Women Want to Have Children Than 10 Years Ago description: A new survey shows more American women expect to have children in the future than 10 years ago. canonical: https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-13T15:12:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:09:30.617Z article:section: Health og:title: More American Women Want to Have Children og:description: A new survey shows more American women expect to have children in the future than 10 years ago. og:url: https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d15cc4328e5f37c/6988aa01524fc03ab3df9db6/baby-women-american.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Baby holding mother's finger og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More American Women Want to Have Children twitter:description: A new survey shows more American women expect to have children in the future than 10 years ago. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d15cc4328e5f37c/6988aa01524fc03ab3df9db6/baby-women-american.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More American Women Want to Have Children by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 13, 2016 3:12 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 13, 2016 3:12 PM UTC The number of American women who say they expect to [have a child](http://motto.time.com/4450280/cdc-fertility-rate-report/) in the future is higher than a decade ago, according to [new federal survey data](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db260.htm). A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 50% of American women between the ages of 15 to 44 say they expect to have a child. In 2002, 46% of women said the same. On average, U.S. women expect to have about two kids. The vast majority of women who already had two or more children said they did not expect to have more. The researchers don’t provide reasons for why more women expect to have children now than in the past, but they do note that birth expectations are influenced by sexual activity, contraceptive use and fertility. Progress in infertility treatments may give women more confidence in their likelihood of having children. It’s also possible that people feel more confident in the economy, [as STAT reports](https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/13/women-plan-children/), and that the economic climate is stable enough to have children. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/"},"headline":"More American Women Want to Have Children","datePublished":"2016-10-13T15:12:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:09:30.617Z","description":"More women expect to have kids than a decade ago","url":"https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/","keywords":["Pregnancy","Children","CDC","birth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d15cc4328e5f37c/6988aa01524fc03ab3df9db6/baby-women-american.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d15cc4328e5f37c/6988aa01524fc03ab3df9db6/baby-women-american.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Baby holding mother's finger","caption":"Baby holding mother's finger","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pregnancy/","name":"Pregnancy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4528593/pregnancy-children-baby/","name":"More American Women Want to Have Children"}}]}] ```