Women in England and Wales are having smaller families than ever before, the latest statistics confirm.
The average number of children born to a woman who turned 45 last year is 1.90, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. This is down from an average of 2.21 among women of their mothers' generation.
The number of women having no children has grown to 18% among women who turned 45 last year. It was just 11% among their mothers' generation.
The ONS also found that 44% of women had not had any children by the time they turned 30. Meanwhile, just 6% of women had started a family before they turned 20.
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Emily Knipe of the ONS told the BBC that "it's not just childlessness" which is reducing the overall average number of children that women are having.
"It's not just a biological factor of people leaving it too late," she added. "There is a growing body of evidence that suggests people are choosing not to have children."
Her colleague Richard Miles told The Guardian: "It's fair to say that we have seen a trend of smaller families overall, but there are a lot of contributing factors to that. Education is a good example, and also [women] continuing to work, so that all fits in with the trend."
It's worth noting that the ONS statistics are predicated on the idea that a woman's child-bearing years end when she is 45. This is a standard figure among fertility analysts, but doesn't reflect the fact that a growing number of women are now having children after the age of 45.
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