ONS And Childfree Intentions
childfree politics · 2 comments · 650 words · read ~418 times.
I've written before about the difference between a person being childless and being childfree. It is a simple matter of intention. Those who want children but don't have them are childless - whereas those with no desire to procreate are childfree.
This is quite an important distinction - and yet it is almost completely absent from the recent Office of National Statistics' report saying "one fifth of women are childless at age 45."
They recently put out these data as an infographic on Twitter.
45% of 30 year olds in 2012 were childless. See how this compares to previous generations bit.ly/1jlupT3 pic.x.com/mspspbkcyk
Looking at the real data, we can see that the pattern seems to be regressing to the mean. 
The press release is rather sparse on the details, but I find the language rather confusing. The report is specifically called "Cohort Fertility". To my mind, this isn't looking at fertility. There may very well be those who are childless who have fertility issues - but there will be many who may be perfectly fertile yet choosing not to breed.
The full statistical bulletin makes a single mention - in a footnote - of people being childfree.
Basten, S (2009). Voluntary childlessness and being Childfree. The Future of Human Reproduction: Working Paper #5.
One of the other papers quoted, mentions the numbers of childfree-by-choice adults,
| Fertility expectations | NCDS | BCS70 |
| Fertile and open to having more children | 44.6% | 58.3% |
| Fertile and categorically not want children | 20.9% | 13.9% |
| Fertile and don't know intentions | 32.2% | 23.6% |
| Infertile/partner infertile | 2.4% | 4.2% |
..and yet it fails to address this in its conclusion. Merely stating:
... [W]e can expect a rise in the numbers experiencing ‘ambivalent’ childlessness is likely to occur. This group of people have been termed 'perpetual postponers' elsewhere in the literature – a group (of women) who maintain a latent desire for children but do not act upon this either at all, or until it’s too late (Berrington 2004).
Failing, of course, to mention the men who may delay - or have no desire for - procreation.
I - along with several other people - queried the ONS's infographic, and wording:
45% of 30 year olds in 2012 were childless. See how this compares to previous generations bit.ly/1jlupT3 pic.x.com/mspspbkcyk
We got back these rather lacklustre replies.
Replying to @ONS.@ONS do you make the distinction between childless and child *free*?
Not all of us want kids, you know.
pic.x.com/pg08y0k6ce
Is This A Problem?
Semantics are important - in this case, the distinction between childlessness and childfreeness reveal several interesting questions.
- Is there a biological fertility problem? That is, are people who are willing to breed but unable to do so?
- Are there political and social problems which are convincing people to delay pregnancy?
- Are these problems driving the desire not to reproduce?
- Do men and women differ in their attitudes and desires?
- What impact (if any) does the increasing acceptance of homosexual relationships have on the desire to bear children?
- Finally, are they over-counting by failing to measure those who get pregnant unintentionally?
But, no. We just get a tabloid-friendly moral panic that women (and only women) are failing in their patriotic duty to lie back and think of England.
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