Younger Americans Are Choosing Financial Security Over Parenthood: Survey
What You Need to Know
About a quarter of millennials and Generation Z without children do not plan to become parents, a MassMutual survey found.
Financial factors are the biggest driver of this decision, according to the survey.
More than half of parents of kids under 18 said they worried about having enough money to support their family.
Few would disagree that starting a family puts a financial strain on new parents. Today, many younger Americans are taking that to heart and opting to continue their childfree lives, according to MassMutual’s latest Consumer Spending & Saving Index.
MasMutual’s third-quarter survey found that 23% of millennials and Generation Z without children do not plan to become parents. The most common motivations for remaining childfree are a preference for the financial freedom that comes from not having children and the inability to afford children.
Thirty-one percent of both generations say they do not plan to become a parent because of the social and political world their children would inherit.
“With today’s financial stressors, it is understandable why there is a growing trend among young adults to prioritize financial security over parenthood,” Paul LaPiana, MassMutual’s head of brand, product and affiliated distribution, said in a statement. “This shift reflects a broader understanding of the importance of financial stability and independence in achieving long-term goals that every generation must reckon with.”
PSB Insights conducted the online study in July among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults. Within the same timeframe, the firm polled an additional sample of 500 adult Massachusetts residents.
Other Index Results
The research found that 73% of respondents with chidren under 18 took steps to financially prepare for parenthood, most commonly by increasing savings. Still, 51% worry that they will not have enough money to support their family. They report that food and clothing are their biggest child-related expenses.
