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These Women Said No to Having Kids Citing Costs Careers and Climate Concerns
British women are increasingly deciding against having children for reasons including financial concerns, career advancement and climate change, a BBC report published this week found. Four individuals detailed their choices, as official data from the Office for National Statistics showed births in England and Wales reaching a near half-century low in 2025. The Centre for Social Justice estimates three million UK women aged 16 to 45 will likely remain childfree, a trend echoed in global figures from the OECD and Pew Research Center.
The BBC report described how Jess King, 32, from west London, had long assumed she would become a mother before questioning that path due to an absence of any maternal urge. “Am I not ready or do I not want this?” King told the BBC, adding that the financial precarity of self-employment played a significant role in solidifying her stance. She found support in online communities dedicated to childfree living, according to the report. Informing her partner Ollie proved challenging at first, though the conversation ultimately went well.
Chy Black, 33, an account manager based in the Midlands, outlined her own decision in the BBC coverage, noting that her African family background led to a lack of understanding from relatives. Black said she believed she could not offer a child the level of love and attention it would require, instead placing emphasis on her career progression and opportunities for travel. The report noted that a friend’s experience of cutting work hours after having a child further convinced her that parenthood would impose unwanted restrictions. Black has since drawn validation from digital support networks that connect like-minded women.
Sasha Thomas, 28, who works as an assistant manager in a cocktail bar in a small Welsh village, recounted facing social backlash from residents who have children or follow conventional relationship paths. Thomas told the BBC that she and her boyfriend Tom would rather allocate their resources to travel experiences such as visits to the Maldives than to raising a family. The BBC account highlighted how village dynamics amplified scrutiny of her choice. Such preferences align with wider patterns where lifestyle freedoms outweigh traditional expectations.
Sian Lawley-Rudd, 37, a dog trainer from Staffordshire, explained in the report that although she was raised to view motherhood as inevitable, she never developed a strong personal desire for it and now feels confident in her childfree status. Lawley-Rudd cited persistent world conflicts and the effects of climate change as further reasons for her position, stating she considers her dogs as family while deriving emotional satisfaction from her professional passion. A Centre for Social Justice assessment found that around three million women aged 16 to 45 in the UK are likely to stay childfree. This projection suggests 600,000 fewer births than would occur if current cohorts followed their grandparents’ fertility patterns.
Nearly half of respondents in a Centre for Social Justice survey of 1,500 women aged 18 to 35 who do not want children pointed to the steep cost of childcare, while 38 percent cited the wish to advance their careers and 41 percent mentioned the desire for a larger house beforehand. The US Census Bureau reported in September 2025 that childlessness among women ages 25 to 29 had increased from approximately 50 percent to 63 percent, with similar rises observed in other younger cohorts due to priorities around economic security. A Pew Research Center analysis found that 44 percent of American non-parents aged 18 to 49 consider it not too likely or not at all likely that they will ever have children.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data places the average total fertility rate across member states at 1.5 children per woman in 2022, down from 3.3 in 1960. Psychology Today referenced a meta-analysis showing that 39 percent of young people worldwide express hesitation about having children because of climate change’s projected impact on future living conditions. The United Nations has characterised the ongoing global fertility decline as unprecedented, with more than half the world’s population now living in countries where the total fertility rate sits below two children per woman.
