One in 20 French people admits that they do not want children. This is the figure that emerges from the Fecond survey carried out by the National Institute of Demographic Studies. “Desire to remain free”, “Freedom to live as one feels” are the main reasons mentioned by people who have chosen not to become a parent and who, 8 times out of 10, admit “being fine without children”. Age, material issues or health reasons are, on the other hand, less often cited by the “childless” as the reason for their choice. But for those people who have made this choice of voluntary infertility, there is no more reason not to want a child than to want to become a parent at all costs.
“It’s a heavy choice to bear, summarizes one of the authors of the study, Charlotte Debest. It is frowned upon but also misunderstood. We refuse to hear that it can be fulfilling, especially for women because we consider that motherhood is part of their identity.”
Among single women, it is the most educated who most often declare that they want to remain childless (slightly more than 19% of women with a level of education higher than bac+3). “They have a different status in society than that of mother”, adds Charlotte Debest.
However, there are still few of them who do not want to be pampered: 6.3% of men and 4.3% of women according to INED. On the other hand, these resistant to layette are a little less numerous when they live as a couple: only 3% of women and 5% of men who live as a couple resist the sirens of parenthood.
This voluntary infertility explains only part of the definitive infertility (that is to say the fact of not having had a child at the end of one’s fertile life), the marital situation or the problems of infertility. also come into play. Today, 13.5% of women born between 1961 and 1965 and 21% of men of these same generations will not have had children.
