Childbearing for Women Born in Different Years, England and Wales, 2013

Statistical Press Release from the Office for National Statistics

Key points

• The average completed family size for women born in 1968, and reaching age 45 in 2013, was 1.92 children per woman. This compares with their mothers’ generation, represented by women born in 1941, who had on average 2.34 children.
• Two children was the most common family size for women born in both 1941 and 1968.
• The level of childlessness among women born in 1968 (18%) is higher than for women born in 1941 (11%). One in ten women born in 1968 had four or more children, compared with nearly one in five women born in 1941.
• Women born in 1983 – the most recent cohort to reach age 30 - have had slightly fewer children on average (1.02) by their 30th birthday than women born in 1968 who had 1.15 children by the same age.

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