Nearly one-in-five American women ends her childbearing years without having borne a child, compared with one-in-ten in the 1970s. While childlessness has risen for all racial and ethnic groups, and most education levels, it has fallen over the past decade for women with advanced degrees.
Today’s mothers of newborns are older and better educated than their counterparts in 1990, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. They are less likely to be white and less likely to be married.
Assessments about the state of black progress in America have improved more dramatically among blacks during the past two years than at any time in the past quarter century.
Women now make up almost half of the U.S. labor force, up from 38% in 1970. The public approves of this trend, but the change has come with a cost for many women — particularly working mothers of young children, who feel the tug of family responsibility much more acutely than do working fathers.
There is a sizable gap between the expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and the actual experiences reported by older adults themselves.
Despite a negative national savings rate, three-in-four Americans still think of themselves as savers. But a majority also acknowledge they don’t save enough.
Most Americans are moderately upbeat about their family’s financial prospects in the coming year, with 57% expecting some improvement in their financial situation and another 10% expecting a lot of improvement.
As Americans navigate increasingly crowded lives, the number of things they say they can’t live without has multiplied in the past decade.
These edicts represent the collective judgment of the American public when asked to assess the moral dimensions of different kinds of behaviors.
Some of us are happier than others, and this variance helps to paint a portrait of the kind of people Americans are. It also casts doubt on some of the famous wisdom on the subject.
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