Guest Author - Previous BellaOnline Editor

Do you feel alone in your choice not to have kids?

If so, you couldn’t be more wrong!

More people than ever before are choosing not to have children, and a new study in Japan provides some concrete numbers to support this growing phenomenon. Over 1000 people participated in the survey, conducted by Mainichi Shimbun.

Almost 25% of the young couples surveyed replied that they had no plans to start a family – that’s one in four! Also, more women than men said they don’t want kids – 20.6% of men, and 25.7% of women.

Apparently age plays a factor as well. Of the twentysomethings, 14.5% of women said they did not want a child. For women over 30, the number jumped to 30.3%

So why do the Japanese in this study not want to start a family?

Most said child birth and child care appear difficult. The second most popular answer was that they couldn’t afford to bring up a child.

For men, 36.7% said they would rather spend their hard earned cash on hobbies.

Career choices also influenced the respondents – 10% of women and 2% of men said it would be too difficult to work and raise a family at the same time.

Interestingly, 23% of married women who DID have children admitted they occasionally regret starting a family. When asked why, the women said they don’t have time to do what they want to do, they were forced to quit their jobs after giving birth, and they had trouble with child care (including difficult husbands who did not share the burden with them).

So there you have it – one country’s concrete evidence that more and more people are deciding to remain child free!