As more U.S. adults say they’re unlikely to ever have children, many Americans feel that free child care and paid family leave would encourage more people to start families, according to a new Pew Research Center report.
The share of adults younger than 50 who say they’re unlikely to ever have children increased 10 percentage points over five years, from 37% in 2018 to 47% in 2023, according to Pew.
A main reason for that? They just don’t want to, 57% of those adults said.
Meanwhile, Pew also found that six-in-ten say federal policies providing free child care would be extremely or very effective in encouraging more people to have children in the future. About half (51%) say requiring employers to provide paid family leave would be a highly effective strategy, with 49% saying the same about providing more tax credits for parents, Pew found.
This Pew analysis includes findings from two surveys conducted in August 2023 and May 2024. It was published Friday, Aug. 2, and comes as Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is being scrutinized for his attacks on leading Democrats as “childless cat ladies.”
Vance’s comments are from a 2021 interview in which he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Views of free child care and paid family leave vary by political party.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely than Republicans and those who lean Republican to say free child care and paid family leave would be highly effective in encouraging more people to have children, Pew said.
Pew has also found that nearly half of all U.S. adults (47%) say fewer people choosing to have children in the future would negatively impact the country.
“Men, older adults, Republicans and Americans with higher incomes are among the most likely to say fewer people having children would have a negative impact,” according to Pew.
