German Women having children later or not at all

A new European Union study estimates that 30% of German women will remain childess. Germany is quite unique in most contries with low fertility young women will have their first child late, and then stop there. German women tend to do the extremes - have no children or two or three.

There's also an intersting view of various parts of Europe and the reduction in fertility rates, The Economist states. Countries in the North and West started to see fertility rates the earliest - in the 1960's and have recently seen it either stabilise or rise. However, countries in the South or East saw fertility rates fall much faster. But German has both characteristics. It's fertility rate fell below 2 in 1971 and has stayed below that level ever since and is still only just above 1.3.

But why? Michael Teitelbaum is a demographer at the Sloan Foundation in New York comments that the reasons are social. They have poor child care, longer levels of higher education, inflexible employment laws, high youth unemployment etc.

Lately we have seen countries in the Mediterranean have seen young women move away from Catholicism which encouraged larger families, and in eastern Europe the collapse in living-standards and pro-birth policies contributed to a decline. These can be seen as temporary factors.

Many people in Europe, it is said, intend to have two children. However, if they start seeing people having fewer they may see it as a norm to have few or no children.

Personally, I'm 30 and have no children. I prove the findings that social considerations often affect the desire (or the ability) to have children.