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Australians’ Desire for Children

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Family Formation in 21st Century Australia

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Abstract

In this chapter we examine one important aspect of fertility – the desire for children. Data from the HILDA survey suggest that the average family size desired by Australians is over two children; higher than the TFR suggests will be achieved by current cohorts of childbearing women, and higher than the average family size achieved by women currently completing their childbearing. Desired family size varies by gender, education and relationship status. Males, the tertiary-educated, and single people expressed preferences for less than two children, on average. Enabled by the longitudinal HILDA data, the analysis examines the factors associated with changes in individuals’ preferences over time. We demonstrate the importance of a number of variables classified as life course, structural and values/orientation factors. A change in relationship status from single to cohabiting or married is found to have a positive effect on desired family size, reinforcing the importance of partnering trends to fertility trends. Age is also critical. While it is well understood that the limitations on women’s capacity to bear children diminish with age, this analysis shows that both men and women generally revise their fertility preferences downwards as they reach their late 30s and early 40s, regardless of how many children they already have. Men’s preferences are also affected by any change in how they rate their level of satisfaction with economic opportunities, while women who rate their careers as a high priority are particularly likely to revise their fertility preferences downwards over time. Finally, those who consider that children provide purpose in life were more likely to report an increase over time in their desired number of additional children.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A replacement-level fertility rate indicates the number of babies a woman would need to have over her reproductive lifespan in order to replace herself and her partner, allowing for current mortality levels. Because the level of fertility required to achieve replacement is dependent on the number of women who survive to reproductive ages, replacement fertility has declined as female life expectancy has increased. While 2.1 is often cited as replacement level, in fact (to two decimal places) it is somewhere between 2.05 and 2.10 (ABS 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Dharmalingam Arunachalam & Genevieve Heard

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  1. Dharmalingam Arunachalam
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  2. Genevieve Heard
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Correspondence to Dharmalingam Arunachalam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Genevieve Heard

  2. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Dharmalingam Arunachalam

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Arunachalam, D., Heard, G. (2015). Australians’ Desire for Children. In: Heard, G., Arunachalam, D. (eds) Family Formation in 21st Century Australia. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9279-0_8

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