When people have their first child
The average American mother now has her first baby at 27.5, nearly a year later than in 2016. In cities it is 28.5.
When to have children, and whether to, is one of the largest decisions in most lives, and it is a decision people are now making later. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics records every birth in the United States, including the mother’s age and whether it is her first child.
The numbers
The average age of a mother at the birth of her first child was 27.5 in 2023, up from 26.6 in 2016. That is nearly a year in seven years, after a much longer climb: the average had already risen by 2.6 years between 1970 and 2000.
The shift is visible across age groups. Between 2016 and 2023, first births fell by 26% among women under 20 and by 9% among women aged 20 to 24. The share among women aged 25 to 29 stayed about the same. First births rose by about 13% among women aged 30 to 34 and by 25% among women aged 35 and over.
Where people live makes a large difference. In 2023, first-time mothers in urban areas averaged about 28.5 years old; in rural areas, about 24.8. The average age at second and third births rose by about a year as well.
Why parenthood has moved later
There is no single reason, but several push the same way:
- More years in education. People who study longer start careers later and, on average, start families later.
- Later marriage. In the US, most first births still happen within marriage, and people are marrying later.
- The cost of a home and of childcare. Many couples wait until they feel they can afford a larger home and the cost of care.
- Choice. Reliable contraception means more births happen when people decide they should.
Later parenthood has real benefits. Older parents tend to have more savings, more stable relationships and more settled careers. It also has costs. Fertility declines with age, gradually through the early thirties and faster after about 35, and more couples who wait find that conceiving takes longer than they expected, or does not happen.
What timing does to the rest of a life
Children change a life’s money, time and relationships more than almost any other event. A first child born at 24 and one born at 34 arrive into very different lives: different savings, different careers, different energy, different grandparents. Neither is better in general. Each closes some doors and opens others.
Research on parents’ happiness is mixed. Parents report more meaning in their lives and, in the years of young children, often less day-to-day happiness, more stress and less sleep. Later in life, adult children are among the most important sources of support and contact people have. The same decision is felt differently at thirty, fifty and eighty.
Not having children
A growing share of adults do not have children, some by choice and some not. Their lives are not missing a chapter; they are written differently. They often have more time and money in middle age, and in old age they rely more on friends, siblings and partners, which makes those relationships more important to keep.
Questions people ask
When does fertility start to decline? Gradually through the early thirties and faster after about 35, with a steep decline in the forties. Men’s fertility declines too, more slowly. The timing varies a lot between individuals, which is why many people who try later conceive without difficulty and some who try younger do not.
Is the average age at first birth the same everywhere? No. Within the US it is several years higher in cities than in rural areas, and it varies widely between countries: it is higher in Japan, Germany and the UK than in the US, and lower in India, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico.
Do people have fewer children when they start later? On average, yes. Starting later leaves fewer years for second and third children, and family sizes in most rich countries have fallen as the age at first birth has risen.
In One Life
“Do you want children now?” is one of One Life’s Life Questions. It comes when it would come in a real life: once a partner has been around for a while, or in a life’s thirties. If the answer is “not now” or “never”, a second question can come years later: “Do you reconsider?” Late in a life, the game asks a third: “How do you feel about the life you chose?”
A child in One Life is a person with a name, an age and a personality, who grows up alongside the rest of the life and costs what children cost in the country you live in. Conception is played at real odds for the age you are when you try. The game does not decide that a life with children is better. It shows you what this one was like.