For generations, women were expected to eventually hit the same milestones: build a career, find a partner, get married and become a mother. But more women are challenging the idea that motherhood has to be part of adulthood at all. The shift is showing up in the numbers. According to 2025 provisional birth data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 3.61 million babies were born in the United States in 2025, down 1 percent from 2024. The general fertility rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. CDC data show that rate has fallen 23 percent since 2007.
That does not mean every woman without children has permanently rejected motherhood. Some are delaying it. Some face infertility or have not found the right partner. Others cannot make the finances work. But researchers are also finding a sizable group of women who simply do not want children, making the rise of childfree women more complicated than a story about people waiting longer to start families.
U.S. Census Bureau data show just how dramatically the timeline has changed. In 2014, roughly half of women ages 25 to 29 had never had children. By 2024, that share had climbed to 63 percent. Among women ages 30 to 34, approximately 40 percent were childless in 2024, compared with about 29 percent a decade earlier. At the same time, childlessness among women ages 45 to 50 actually declined from 16.7 percent to 14.9 percent, evidence that delayed motherhood is part of the picture.
Still, delay does not explain everything.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 47 percent of adults under 50 who did not have children said they were unlikely to ever have them, up from 37 percent in 2018. Among adults under 50 who said they were unlikely to have children, 57 percent said a major reason was that they simply did not want them. That figure climbed to 64 percent among women.
Money is another major piece of the conversation.
Pew found that 36 percent of adults under 50 who were unlikely to have children cited being unable to afford raising a child as a major reason. Among respondents ages 18 to 39, the figure reached 41 percent. Those concerns arise as housing, food, healthcare, and childcare consume large portions of household budgets.
Childcare alone can feel like another rent payment. According to Child Care Aware of America’s 2025 analysis, the national average annual price of childcare reached $13,184 in 2025. Between 2021 and 2025, childcare prices increased 23 percent.
The Federal Reserve’s 2025 household survey found parents who paid for childcare spent a median $250 per week. For families using at least 20 hours of paid care each week, that median climbed to $350 weekly, or roughly $1,517 per month. Most families paying for both childcare and housing spent at least half as much on childcare as they did on housing.
And childcare is only one expense.
A 2025 KFF analysis of women with employer-sponsored insurance found pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care generated an average $20,416 in total healthcare spending, including $2,743 in out-of-pocket expenses. Newborn healthcare added another average $5,820 in spending, including $475 out of pocket.
For women specifically, the calculation can extend beyond the bills. It can involve time, career momentum, and who is expected to carry the bulk of parenting responsibilities.
According to Federal Reserve research, 56 percent of mothers living with a spouse or partner and younger children said they were usually the primary caretaker when their children were home, compared with 13 percent of fathers. Even when both parents worked full time, 37 percent of mothers identified themselves as the primary caregiver compared with 11 percent of fathers.
That imbalance helps explain why conversations about being childfree can also become conversations about autonomy.
Pew found that 80 percent of younger adults unlikely to have children said not having kids made it easier to have time for hobbies and interests. Seventy-nine percent said it made affording things they wanted easier, while 75 percent pointed to saving for the future. Among applicable respondents, 61 percent said being successful at work was easier without children.
There are emotional and social factors too. According to Pew, 44 percent of younger adults unlikely to have children said focusing on other things, including careers and personal interests, was a major reason. Thirty-eight percent cited concerns about the state of the world, while 26 percent pointed to environmental concerns, including climate change. Women were also more likely than men to cite negative experiences with their own families growing up.
Yet falling fertility should not automatically be interpreted as Americans rejecting family life. Gallup reported in 2025 that Americans still considered an average of 2.7 children the ideal family size, even as the national fertility rate remained far below that figure. The gap suggests two realities can exist simultaneously: some adults genuinely prefer a childfree life, while others want children but encounter financial, relationship, health, or structural barriers.
For women, that distinction matters. Being childless is not always the same thing as being childfree, and postponing motherhood is not necessarily rejecting it.
What has clearly changed is the assumption that every woman sees motherhood as inevitable. More women now have the social and economic ability to ask whether raising children is something they actually want rather than something they are simply expected to do.
And increasingly, some are deciding the answer is no.
