The prevalence of childlessness in Australia

Estimates of historical and contemporary levels of childlessness are both subject to assumptions about data and method. In Australia, the proportion childless has fluctuated considerably over the past century, ranging from 30 per cent of women born around the turn of the twentieth century to below 10 per cent in the cohorts that produced the baby boom. Although childlessness is increasing among women currently in their childbearing years, a return to record levels is unlikely in the short term. It is expected that about one in five women currently of reproductive age will remain childless. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s