High-priced housing and the cost of living are killing the desire of Australian couples to have children, as signs grow that traditional attitudes towards everything from marriage to the role of women in the workforce are rapidly breaking down. Source: The Age.
A long-running survey of the Australian public’s values found the number of women who never want to have children has almost doubled over the past two decades, with both sexes in their prime child-rearing ages shunning the idea of starting families.
And in a clear threat to conservative political parties, the same survey shows a collapse in support for traditional values across all generations, with sentiment improving significantly towards single parenting, homosexual relationships and the participation of mothers in the workforce.
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) has tracked the same 16,000 people for more than two decades, delivering one of the world’s most respected long-term social surveys.
In 2005, 8 per cent of women and 11 per cent of men did not want children. That has climbed to 14 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. More than a quarter of both sexes either don’t want a baby or just a single child, almost matching the proportion who want three or more.
For the first time since the survey started, the desired number of children by either sex across all age groups has fallen below 2.1, which is the natural replacement level for a population.
Among women aged 18 to 49, almost 85 per cent said that cost was an important or very important factor holding them back from having a child.
Report lead author Inga Lass of the Melbourne Institute said the cost of housing was putting off couples from having children.
Tied to the drop in the desire for children is a collapse in what had long been considered traditional values.
In 2005, 52 per cent of women and 57 per cent of men agreed that marriage was a lifetime relationship and should never be ended. That has fallen to 30 per cent among women and 41 per cent among men.
FULL STORY
Maybe no baby: Australian couples ditch traditional values about family, work and marriage (By Shane Wright and Nick Newling, The Age)
