Thanks for all the responses to the April On-the-Ground question:

What studies would you like to see about the childfree?

Three response themes stuck out:

1. More data on the overall numbers

People want to know more about the real numbers of childfree. The census tracks women without children but does not track the choice factor. The National Survey on Family Growth comes out with data on women who are “voluntary childless” every few years (the last was from 2002 at 6%; more data is due out this year but I have been given a heads up by the folks there that it’s still at about 6%), but what about men? What are race breakdowns? I saw race data when researching Families of Two, but more up to date data is needed. Prior research includes:

A  1998 census study showed that levels of childlessness were the same for Caucasian and African American women ages 40-44 that have ever been married. Regardless of marital status, Hispanics had lower levels of childlessness than both the Caucasian and African American groups.

2. More international demographic data

Folks are curious about the childfree in other countries.  In Italy, for example, birth rates are low; how many childfree are there compared to the U.S.? How about other countries like Germany? A few people wanted to hear the opinions of childfree women from these countries and others that have a high standard of living like Scandinavia.

3. How are we different thant the rest of the general population, if at all?

There have been studies, but not enough that are relatively recent.  Two more recent studies include sociologist Kristin Park, who did did an analysis of childfree at the time (2005) and previous studies, and found that the childfree are more likely to have managerial type occupations, more like to have both spouses working and making relatively high incomes, live in urban areas, be less conventional in general.  We need more study here. In my interviews over the last 10 years, I would not agree with these results.

In 2007 psychologist and professor Christine Brooks did a study of early female articulators and found that the childfree value their autonomy, like to have control over their environment and have economic security. But the question is and for other differences, are they truly different enough from the population in general? On the ground, overall I have found that we are mostly like everyone else–you find us in a myriad of occupations, live traditional and not-so-traditional lifestyles, and span all income levels and personal styles.   The autonomy streak I would hypothesize might have statistical significance. Well funded studies would shed statistical light on these questions and others!

What do you see out there re how we are different or not so different than parents? If you had unlimited funding, what would you study about the childfree?