| ■ More 40-Something U.S. Women Are Childless | 2008.08.25 |
| Fewer American women in their 40s have children, according to a Census Bureau study that examined data from a 2006 survey of 76 million women, ages 15 to 50. About 4.2 million of the women had had a child in the previous year. The study found that in the last 30 years, the number of women ages 40 to 44 with no children has increased from 10 percent to 20 percent. Those who were mothers in 2006 had an average of 1.9 children each, more than one child fewer than women ages 40 to 44 had in 1976, the Associated Press reported. In 2006, women with graduate or professional degrees had the most births of women in all educational levels. The study, Fertility of American Women: 2006, also found that about 36 percent of women who gave birth in the previous year were separated, divorced, widowed or unmarried. While unemployed women had about twice as many babies as working women, those who had jobs accounted for 57 percent of recent births. Among women who had a child during the previous year, about one-quarter were living below the poverty line, the AP reported. |