In 2012…
At the end of 2012, I put out an informal poll asking this question:
How accepting is society of the childfree choice?
I asked people to choose one of the following statements that best reflected their opinion:
A. Major social progress! Today it’s by and large accepted.
B. Acceptance has come a long way in the last decade, but we’re not quite there.
C. More accepted today than 10 years ago but we still have a ways to go.
D. Hardly accepting – we sure have a long way to go.
7 Years Later…
Seven years later, this month I put out the childfree poll again, and this time collected a bit more information about respondents.
In 2012 nearly 700 people responded, and this time, 853 did so ~ thank you!
Of the 2019 respondents, 52% indicated they reside in the US, 12% UK, 10% Canada, 7.5% Australia, the rest spotted around the world.
The largest respondent age range was 30-40 years old.
Ninety percent of respondents indicated they are childfree.
Comparing the response to the opinion question:
2012 2019
A. 4% 3.5%
B. 16% 27%
C. 58% 55.7%
D. 22% 13.8%
Option A: “Major social progress! Today it’s by and large accepted” response percentage stayed about the same.
Option B: “Acceptance has come a long way in the last decade, but we’re not quite there” is nine percent higher in 2019.
Option C: “More accepted today than 10 years ago but we still have a ways to go” response percentage is close in range and has the highest percentage in both polls.
Option D: “Hardly accepting – we sure have a long way to go” is about eight percent less in 2019.
Now, this is an informal poll with self-selected respondents – not a controlled study. Think of it as taking a pulse, or a snapshot of opinion (and to me, a fun one at that : )).
Having said this, this year I like seeing an increase in people selecting the option that reflects having come a long way and fewer people selecting the “hardly accepting” option.
What do you predict will be the percentage breakdown about seven years from now, in 2027?
How long do you think it will take for the highest percentage to be Option A?
A big thanks to all who participated!
