--- title: Percentage of Childless Women on the Rise, Cenus Bureau Data Shows description: Nearly half of women between 15 and 44 are childless canonical: https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-07T20:41:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:55.410Z article:section: Health og:title: More Women Aren't Having Children, Survey Finds og:description: Nearly half of women between 15 and 44 are childless og:url: https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Women Aren't Having Children, Survey Finds twitter:description: Nearly half of women between 15 and 44 are childless twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # More Women Aren't Having Children, Survey Finds by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Apr 7, 2015 8:41 PM UTC by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Apr 7, 2015 8:41 PM UTC More women in the U.S. are childless than at any other time since the government began keeping track, a new survey found. Nearly half of women between the ages of 15 and 44 did not have kids in 2014, up from 46.5% in 2012 to 47.6% in 2014, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s [Current Population Survey](http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/historical.html). The figure is the highest percentage since the Census Bureau started measuring it in 1976. Among women between 25 and 29, 49.6% were childless in 2014, also an all-time high. In the group between 30 and 34, 28.9% were childless, up from 28.2% in 2012 but below an all-time high of 29.7% in 2010. As of 2013, the general fertility rate in the U.S., as measured by the number of babies women between 15 and 44 have over their lifetimes, had fallen for six straight years and sat at 1.86, according to the New York [_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/us/us-sees-decline-in-births-for-sixth-year.html?%5Fr=0). Maintaining a stable U.S. population would require a fertility rate of 2.1. _Read next:_ [_There’s Nothing Wrong with the Mommy Track_](http://time.com/3430120/mommy-track-nothing-wrong-with-it/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/"},"headline":"More Women Aren't Having Children, Survey Finds","datePublished":"2015-04-07T20:41:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:55.410Z","description":"Nearly half of women between 15 and 44 are childless","url":"https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/","keywords":["Research","Living","Family"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"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/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3774620/more-women-not-having-kids/","name":"More Women Aren't Having Children, Survey Finds"}}]}] ```