The Pew Research Center recently put out an interesting report on women without children. According to their findings:

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.

One-in-five women? I have to say that those figures surprised me. The report goes on to say:

Childlessness is most common among highly educated women. In 2008, 24% of women ages 40-44 with a bachelor’s degree had not had a child. Rates were similar for women with a master’s degree (25%) and those with a doctorate or a professional degree, such as a medical or legal degree (23%).

The report doesn’t give any indication as to why the rates dropped in women with advanced degrees when they were increasing overall. Any thoughts on this?

I thought it would be interesting to conduct our own poll and test our figures against the report’s. What is the highest level of education you have attained?

[polldaddy poll=3463887]