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For many people, the stereotype of adult life might include a house with a picket fence and 2.5 children.

But in the United States, a growing number of adults are saying that they're happy

to do without the kids part of that vision. A 2021 Pew Research Center poll found that 44% of

non-parents ages 18 to 49 said it was unlikely that they would have children in the future,

up from 37% in 2018. When asked why, more than

half said that they just didn't want to have kids. Despite these significant numbers, until recently

not much research had looked specifically at people who choose not to have children, sometimes

called child-free adults. Instead, researchers often lump child-free adults in

with a larger pool of people who were childless for other reasons. Now some researchers are

beginning to study this group. They're asking questions such as, how common is it to be child-free?

What percentage of the population is choosing not to have kids? Do people who decide not to

have children early in life stick with that decision or do they often change their minds? Do

child-free adults differ from those who have kids in terms of personality or other characteristics?

And what about outcomes? Are people who choose not to have kids happier, less happy, or no different from those who do?

What challenges in stigma do child-free adults face?

...