Child-free and Single - by Choice in New Zealand

Child-free and single - by choice

"I don't subscribe to what I see as the somewhat romantic notion that having a child somehow completes you and is the most valid thing you can do with your existence."

Bill Boddington, a senior demographer at Statistics New Zealand says Sarah is not unusual when it comes to the type of women choosing to remain childfree in New Zealand.

She is also one of a growing number of female New Zealanders who are not partnering. The census revealed a dramatic rise in never married or non-partnered women. These women made up 6% of 35 to 39-year-olds in 1986, rising to 14% in 2006.

But Sarah's educational qualification is one of the biggest commonalities that she has with other childless women: 25% of women with a post-graduate qualification have no children, as opposed to only 13% of women with no qualifications.
. . .
Eleven per cent of Maori women over 44 were childless, as were 12% of those of Pacific and Asian descent, while more than 16% of women of European descent had no children.

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