The baby crunch: Gen X women wait longer to start families and have fewer children... with another drop projected in Gen Z and Gen Alpha

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, UK POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 11:26, 10 June 2026 | Updated: 11:26, 10 June 2026 A looming baby crunch was laid bare today as figures showed fertility continuing to drop. Women born in 1979 have a completed family size of 1.95 - compared to 2.12 for their grandmothers and 2.05 for their 'baby boomer' mothers. Although the average number of children has recovered from a low of 1.89 for women born in 1972 and 1973 - the start of Generation X - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) projects a dramatic slump in England and Wales in the coming years. The 2008-born 'Generation Z' is expected to have just 1.48 offspring per woman, while the figure could tumble to 1.43 for girls arriving this year.  The minimum for maintaining the size of the population - without accounting for immigration - is regarded as 2.1.  The ONS analysis found people are waiting longer to start families, with the 1979 generation not hitting an average of one child per woman until they turned 31. The equivalent mark was reached by their mothers at age 27, and for their grandmothers it was 28.  Women born in 1979 have a completed family size of 1.95 - compared to 2.12 for their grandmothers and 2.05 for their 'baby boomer' mothers The 2008-born 'Generation Z' is expected to have just 1.48 offspring, while the figure could tumble to 1.43 for girls arriving this year For Gen Z there might not be one child per woman on average until age 35, according to the ONS. The statistics body said: 'The proportion of women not having children has varied little across the cohorts.  'Of women born in 1979, 15.7 per cent had no children; this is a slightly higher proportion than their mother's cohort (14.8 per cent) but is lower than their grandmother's cohort (16.8 per cent).  'There has, however, been a shift towards smaller families for the 1979 cohort, compared with their mother's.  'The proportion of women that have had one child increased from 12.4 per cent (for women born in 1953) to 18.5 per cent (for women born in 1979).' The ONS cautioned that projections for future generations are based on demographic assumptions and 'uncertain'.  The ONS has also produced figures on male fertility for the first time.  Men in the 1979-born cohort had an average of one child by age 33, older than women. Men born in 1959 had an average completed family size of two in 2024, which was higher than the 1.98 for women the same age. The ONS analysis found people are waiting longer to start families, with the 1979 generation not hitting an average of one child per woman until they turned 31 No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.