Nearly half of British adults are putting off or deciding against having children, with money worries a top factor, a stark new poll reveals.
A survey of 18 to 50-year-olds from pollsters Ipsos, shared exclusively with The Independent, shows that 44 per cent of adults plan to delay having children, or are deciding against it altogether – with the cost of raising children, including food, clothing and education, cited as the most common reason (39 per cent).
And a third of prospective parents said they were put off by the cost of childcare in the UK – despite the government’s rollout of extended free nursery hours.
While a third of respondents said they weren’t having children because they simply didn’t want to, others said they were put off by fears over climate change, with worries over how global warming will affect their child’s future, and how having children may harm the environment.
The poll comes as birth rates in England and Wales are at their lowest rate on record, and as deaths are expected to consistently outnumber births in the UK from 2030.
Michael Farmer, a vocal supporter of family stability, criticised the systemic issues underlying low birth rates and argued that parents needed more financial support.
“The UK’s tax system discourages childbearing; it is one of the least family-friendly in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]. No allowances are made for dependents, so our tax system also disadvantages single parents. The current level of marriage allowance gives scant recognition of low-earning or non-earning second parents,” he said in a House of Lords debate in November.
In 2023, more people died than were born in the UK. This gap is only expected to widen between 2030 and 2050, according to projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This means that the majority of population growth is driven by immigration rather than births.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told The Independent in June that the steep decline in birth rates is “a big challenge” for the UK, which needs to be addressed.
She added: “I’ve heard from lots of people that the choices that they wanted to make have been constrained, in terms of when to start a family and how many children they have, by factors like the cost of childcare, housing costs, instability at work.”
Fertility rates are shrinking faster than in any other G7 nation, falling by 25 per cent in the UK since 2010. However, women are still having slightly more children on average than those in Japan, Italy and Canada.
Despite advancements in flexible working and parental leave, some parents polled said they believed that it is harder to raise children now than in previous generations, with the cost of living and the price of housing increasing beyond pay.
The majority of adults (56 per cent) believe it is harder to be a parent in the UK today than 20 years ago, with 61 per cent of women saying it was harder to raise a child now compared to men (52 per cent).
And even older generations agreed, with those aged 55 to 75-year-olds the most likely to believe (59 per cent) that parenthood is trickier now than two decades ago.
The decline in birth rates has generated much discussion among politicians.
Recently, Nigel Farage pledged he would abolish the two-child benefit cap if Reform came into power, as part of a “180-degree shift” to reverse low birth rates.
But his stance has not yet fully won over the public, who still trust Labour more than any other party to support parents and families, according to Ipsos’s poll.
This is in spite of Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to remove the two-child benefit cap, after pledging to reduce child poverty, which sparked public rebellion among Labour MPs.
Meanwhile, the Tories are less trusted to support families than both Reform and Labour. The party’s current leader, Kemi Badenoch, has previously said she believes maternity pay is “excessive” and that “families on benefits should make the same responsible decisions about having children as everyone else”.
But more than one in five people said that they don’t trust any major party to support families with their policies.
Tackling affordable housing is the most popular policy change, which would lead to people having more children, according to 42 per cent of Ipsos respondents.
The cost of renting in Britain has now reached new record highs, according to Rightmove, with average asking rent at £1,365 per month. Meanwhile, fewer young people are buying homes, as housing prices are far outpacing wage growth.
More than one in three adults also believe that making childcare more affordable for parents with preschool children would incentivise more people to have children.
The government has rolled out 15 hours of free childcare to children aged nine months to two years old, which from September will be extended to 30 hours of childcare a week.
However, recent calculations from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, revealed by The Independent, show that uptake is likely to be 25 per cent higher than expected, and since the number of childcare places has barely increased in recent years, it will be a struggle for many to secure places.
Improving access to free nursery hours will no doubt be a welcome move, since full-time childcare on average costs between 37 to 43 per cent of the average income in the UK.
