Half of women born in 1990 had not had children by the time they turned 30.
This is the highest proportion of women reaching their 30th birthday without starting a family since records began in 1920, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The proportion of women having their first child in their twenties has been shrinking in recent years.
Amanda Sharfman, Centre for Ageing and Demography, ONS, said “We continue to see a delay in childbearing, with women born in 1990 becoming the first cohort where half of the women remain childless by their 30th birthday.
“Levels of childlessness by age 30 have been steadily rising since a low of 18% for women born in 1941. Lower levels of fertility in those currently in their 20s indicate that this trend is likely to continue.
“The average number of children born to a woman has been below two for women born since the late 1950s. While two-child families are still the most common, women who have recently completed their childbearing are more likely than their mothers’ generation to have only one child or none at all.”
Women born in 1975, and aged 45 and over, are counted as having completed their childbearing years in 2020.
Among these women, the most common family size (37%) was two children. However, this is a decrease in the proportion of those having two children compared with their mothers' generation born in 1949 (44%).
Of the women born in 1975, 18% were childless, with 17% having only one child, both of which are increases compared with their mothers' generation (both 13%).
