Women ‘missing out’ on motherhood because of ‘delay’ in men maturing, think tank claims
Hundreds of thousands of women are missing out on the opportunity to have children, partly due to a “delay” in young men reaching adulthood, a report has claimed.
The Center for Social Justice, a think tank founded by Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, said current trends predicted that around three million women aged 16 to 45 would be unable to have children. If birth trends were the same as their grandparents’ generation, approximately 2.4 million women would not have children. This means approximately 600,000 fewer women are having children.
The paper, published on Sunday, listed a number of reasons why birth rates are falling, including declining marriage rates and a later age for women to have children. But the report also suggests that “male employment and education trends may play a role in declining birth rates.”
While “in the past” a 24-year-old man was likely to have been married, had children and been working for ten years, men now leave home on average at just 25, the report said.
One way to combat the falling birth rate in the UK is to encourage marriage at a younger age and for men to “enter adulthood” before the age of 25, the report said.
The Center for Social Justice was founded in 2003 by Sir Iain, the Conservative government’s former Work and Pensions Secretary. The CSJ’s report is also supported by former Conservative Party MP Miriam Cates, who has publicly expressed concern about falling fertility rates in Britain and called for policies that encourage marriage and childbearing.
Elsewhere, the report recommends the government investigate so-called “pro-natalist” policies, such as tax cuts and benefit changes that encourage people to start or raise families.
But creating financial incentives to have children without addressing low marriage rates is “putting the cart before the horse,” he said. Financial Times.
The FT article included in the report does not mention marriage but links fertility to falling intercourse rates. The report stated: “From the United States, Finland and South Korea to Türkiye, Tunisia and Thailand, the decline in birth rates is a result of declining relationships between adults. baby bonuses When increasing numbers of people are left without a partner, put the cart before the horse. “Similar trends may even be ongoing in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.”
The think tank’s proposal to encourage marriage through tax cuts comes after Reform England MP Matt Goodwin was criticized for saying in a blog that people without children should be taxed extra as a penalty.
Falling fertility rates could also affect the ratio between retirees and working-age people, and the retirement age should rise to 75 by 2039 to maintain that ratio, the think tank said.
Total fertility rates fell between 2012 and 2023, the UK Office for National Statistics said in a report published in January 2025.
In addition, it was stated that fertility rates are expected to decrease in all age groups under the age of 30, and increase in age groups over the age of 30 between 2022 and 2047.
The ONS asked a panel of experts to outline various factors that may affect future fertility rates and found that:
- Cost of living crisis could reduce fertility in the short term
- Climate change may have ‘negligible impact’ or reduce fertility
- Change in childcare funding will have “limited” impact in the short term
- International migration patterns may affect future fertility levels
- Conflicts will either “put downward pressure on fertility or have a negligible impact.”
