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The Office for National Statistics reported 585,396 live births in England and Wales for 2025 on May 27, a 1.6 percent drop from the prior year and the lowest total since 1977. A March report from the Centre for Social Justice projected that three million women aged 16 to 45 will likely stay childfree, compared with 2.4 million if patterns matched earlier generations. These women said no to having kids – here’s why, according to accounts gathered by the BBC this week that echo findings from international studies on fertility decline.
The Centre for Social Justice report attributed the trend to a range of social and economic pressures, including rising housing costs, delayed financial independence, later marriages and career uncertainty. A survey of more than 1,500 women aged 18 to 35 commissioned by the New Social Covenant Unit in 2023 found 38 percent of those not wanting children cited career advancement as the reason, the report noted. Nearly half pointed to the high cost of childcare while 41 percent mentioned the need for a larger home, according to the CSJ assessment. Across the OECD the total fertility rate has more than halved since 1960 to 1.5 children per woman in 2022, an OECD report from 2024 showed, while the Pew Research Center determined in 2024 that 57 percent of U.S. adults under 50 who are unlikely to have children said they simply do not want to.
Jess King, 32, from west London, told the BBC that she began questioning her assumed path to motherhood after failing to feel the maternal urge others described. The self-employed content creator cited financial instability as a barrier, noting her fluctuating income made the prospect of raising a child daunting amid widespread struggles to make ends meet. “There are so many people struggling to get by. Some months, we are really scraping the pennies and it can be difficult,” King said. She added that social media communities validated her choice without influencing it, helping her feel more comfortable discussing the decision with her partner.
Chy Black, a 33-year-old account manager from the Midlands, described facing disbelief from wider family members due to cultural expectations in her African background where women are supposed to have children. Black said she would not feel comfortable being responsible for another person or providing what she sees as the required abundance of love, while prioritising her career and travel opportunities that she believes would become far harder with a child. “Being someone with resistance to that idea was met with a lot of shock and disbelief,” Black told the BBC. She argued that insufficient support for mothers, including high childcare costs and inflexible parental leave, makes it harder for women to maintain lives beyond motherhood, suggesting systemic changes might have altered her views earlier.
Sasha Thomas, 28, an assistant manager at a cocktail bar in a small Welsh village, has encountered backlash for her childfree stance in a community where most people marry and have children young. Thomas and her partner prefer directing their resources toward travel, such as an upcoming trip to the Maldives that would be unaffordable with kids, while facing comments that she might change her mind. Sian Lawley-Rudd, 37, a dog trainer from Staffordshire, cited global conflicts, climate change and the state of the world as decisive factors in her decision. “Do I want to bring a child into the world the way that it is right now? No,” Lawley-Rudd said in her BBC interview, adding that she finds fulfillment in her work and her two dogs instead.
Online communities have provided affirmation for many, with the hashtag #childfree amassing over 127,900 videos on TikTok and #childfreebychoice exceeding 68,100, according to the BBC count this week. The women reported mixed reactions in person, ranging from supportive close friends and parents to criticism from extended family or strangers who question their choices or predict future regret. King noted that in a previous generation she might have faced more pressure to conform despite feeling the same, while the current environment allows greater freedom to opt out without it being the default expectation.
The Centre for Social Justice called for greater social and policy value to be placed on motherhood, arguing it enjoyed higher esteem in the 20th century, as part of addressing the UK’s predicted childlessness rate of up to 30 percent. The Office for National Statistics has projected more deaths than births in the UK every year from now on, a shift that Lords Library research in June 2026 linked to factors such as elevated childcare and housing costs alongside women’s increased higher education and workforce participation. Similar rises in childlessness among younger U.S. women, with rates climbing to 63 percent for those aged 25 to 29, appear in Census Bureau data from September 2025.
