- 20 Nov 2023 16:59
#15295886
Here's one of the big reasons white women in the U.S. are not having kids: There's a shortage of college-educated men.
Women who are themselves college-educated seem averse to marrying "down", or forming serious relationships with these potential male candidates.
There is now a higher percent of women with college degrees than men, and it also takes younger adult men longer to obtain a college degree, on average. (This discrepancy between genders is even greater for African Americans)
Among whites in the U.S., 56 percent of 4-year degrees are earned by women, and 60 percent of Associate's degrees.
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72
By the time they were 23 years old, 23 percent of women had earned a 4-year degree, versus 14 percent of men.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archiv ... 092011.pdf
So instead these "surplus" college educated women end up not having kids.
(For non-Hispanic Whites in the U.S. in 2021 the percentage of adults age 25 and older with a 4-year degree was 41.9%.
source: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-r ... nment.html )
Looks like there's a similar problem in Australia:
" Fellow demographer Bernard Salt, based on Census data published in March 2012, found it was most competitive for single women of marrying age.
There are 1.3 million single women aged 25-34 living in Australia. In the same age bracket, however, there are only 86,000 single, heterosexual, well-off or "eligible'' men earning above $60,000 a year. "
There's also some anecdotal evidence to suggest that college-educated women who marry a man with lower educational qualifications and choose to start a family are much more likely to only have 1 child.
https://ifstudies.org/blog/better-educa ... g-husbands
https://www.economist.com/news/internat ... pears-rise
While a college educated man is much more likely to marry to a college educated woman than a non-college educated man, there are still plenty of college educated men who start families with non-college educated women. So it's not as if there's "enough" non-college educated women to go around for all the men without a college degree.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archi ... me/274654/
Of women with a 4-year degree now married, 59 percent are married to a man with a 4-year degree or more. About 25 percent of college-educated women are not married.
Compared to males who did not complete high school, men with at least a bachelor's degree are about 11 percent more likely to have married by the age of 46, while for females it's only 4 percent greater.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/artic ... ment-5.htm
This percentage doesn't tell the whole story because the marriages of more educated men last longer than those of men without a 4-year degree.
Among women in the U.S. between the ages of 40 to 44, 20 percent have never had a child, and this percentage rises to 27 percent for women of this age group with graduate or professional degrees.
https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010 ... -children/
College educated women are likelier to have fewer children than women without college education:
By the time women reach the 40-44 age group, those who didn’t finish high school averaged 2.56 births per 1,000 women, the highest fertility. Women who finished high school or had any college experience had the next highest fertility, 1.88 and 1.91, respectively. Women who finished college had the lowest fertility — 1.75 births among those with a bachelor’s degree and an even-lower 1.67 for those with graduate degrees,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... ldbearing/
Interestingly, however, women with higher levels of education than a 4-year degree are no longer having fewer children than those with only a 4-year degree, which is a change from what the statistics were 25 years ago.
https://voxeu.org/article/highly-educat ... fewer-kids
It's still overall true to say that college educated women have fewer children than those without college.
All this, of course, has big demographic implications, for the future society and the economy. As well as political and social implications.
Also see related thread: Nearly half of U.S. women under 45 are childless (posted in North America section, Sep 2, 2023)
Women who are themselves college-educated seem averse to marrying "down", or forming serious relationships with these potential male candidates.
There is now a higher percent of women with college degrees than men, and it also takes younger adult men longer to obtain a college degree, on average. (This discrepancy between genders is even greater for African Americans)
Among whites in the U.S., 56 percent of 4-year degrees are earned by women, and 60 percent of Associate's degrees.
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72
By the time they were 23 years old, 23 percent of women had earned a 4-year degree, versus 14 percent of men.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archiv ... 092011.pdf
So instead these "surplus" college educated women end up not having kids.
(For non-Hispanic Whites in the U.S. in 2021 the percentage of adults age 25 and older with a 4-year degree was 41.9%.
source: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-r ... nment.html )
Looks like there's a similar problem in Australia:
" Fellow demographer Bernard Salt, based on Census data published in March 2012, found it was most competitive for single women of marrying age.
There are 1.3 million single women aged 25-34 living in Australia. In the same age bracket, however, there are only 86,000 single, heterosexual, well-off or "eligible'' men earning above $60,000 a year. "
There's also some anecdotal evidence to suggest that college-educated women who marry a man with lower educational qualifications and choose to start a family are much more likely to only have 1 child.
https://ifstudies.org/blog/better-educa ... g-husbands
https://www.economist.com/news/internat ... pears-rise
While a college educated man is much more likely to marry to a college educated woman than a non-college educated man, there are still plenty of college educated men who start families with non-college educated women. So it's not as if there's "enough" non-college educated women to go around for all the men without a college degree.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archi ... me/274654/
Of women with a 4-year degree now married, 59 percent are married to a man with a 4-year degree or more. About 25 percent of college-educated women are not married.
Compared to males who did not complete high school, men with at least a bachelor's degree are about 11 percent more likely to have married by the age of 46, while for females it's only 4 percent greater.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/artic ... ment-5.htm
This percentage doesn't tell the whole story because the marriages of more educated men last longer than those of men without a 4-year degree.
Among women in the U.S. between the ages of 40 to 44, 20 percent have never had a child, and this percentage rises to 27 percent for women of this age group with graduate or professional degrees.
https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010 ... -children/
College educated women are likelier to have fewer children than women without college education:
By the time women reach the 40-44 age group, those who didn’t finish high school averaged 2.56 births per 1,000 women, the highest fertility. Women who finished high school or had any college experience had the next highest fertility, 1.88 and 1.91, respectively. Women who finished college had the lowest fertility — 1.75 births among those with a bachelor’s degree and an even-lower 1.67 for those with graduate degrees,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... ldbearing/
Interestingly, however, women with higher levels of education than a 4-year degree are no longer having fewer children than those with only a 4-year degree, which is a change from what the statistics were 25 years ago.
https://voxeu.org/article/highly-educat ... fewer-kids
It's still overall true to say that college educated women have fewer children than those without college.
All this, of course, has big demographic implications, for the future society and the economy. As well as political and social implications.
Also see related thread: Nearly half of U.S. women under 45 are childless (posted in North America section, Sep 2, 2023)
Last edited by Puffer Fish on 20 Nov 2023 17:28, edited 7 times in total.