[Romobencience]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in the last 30 years, the number of U.S. women who reached the end of their childbearing years without bearing a child went from 10 percent to 20 percent.

The findings also highlight the shrinking of the average American family. In 1976, women on average had 3.1 children, but that figure had fallen by 2006 to 1.9 children. That is below the level of fertility needed to ensure a stable population - 2.1 children per woman is known in demographic jargon as "replacement-level fertility".

Expressed another way, 30 years ago 59% of women used to have three or more children, but that has also tailed off to just 28%.

There is also a striking variation in the frequency of childless women according to their race or origin. The proportion of white women, excluding those of Hispanic origin, who have no children is much higher than other groups at 23%.

Hispanic women are the least likely to remain childless at 14%, with black women at 16% and Asian women at 18%.

Women are waiting longer to finish their education so childbearing starts later," said Jennifer Manlove, a researcher specialising in teenage pregnancies with the organisation Child Trends.

Highly educated women are not just delaying pregnancy, they are now far more likely to remain childless full stop. The proportion of graduates or those with a professional degree without children aged 40 to 44 rises to more than one in four - 27%.

That compares with just 15% - less than one in six - for US women who did not complete their schooling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/us/19census.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/20/usa1

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/...ata-Shows.html