25% of Gen Z women in Ireland will have no children by 45: report

(LifeSiteNews) — A new report says that a quarter of Gen Z in Ireland will remain childless as fertility continues to drop in the traditionally Catholic country.

A report from the pro-life and pro-family Iona Institute showed a massive increase in the number of Irish women who are childless. Using data from the Human Fertility Database and demographic modeling, the institute calculated that 25 percent of Gen Z women in the country will likely be childless by age 45.

Among women born in the late 1950s, 30.9 percent were childless by age 30. In comparison, 63.6 percent of women born in the early 1990s (i.e., Millennials) were childless by age 30.

Breda OʼBrien of the Iona Institute said “a huge question is whether this will be by choice or circumstance.”

“Much will be unplanned and forced by circumstance, such as the cost of living,” she stated. “It’s worrying and weʼre sliding into it without too much discussion. Before the 1930s, we had similar rates of childlessness in Ireland, but that was because of extreme poverty, late marriage, and low marriage rates. Weʼre supposed to be in an era where women have every possible choice.”

“The choice to have children, which is fundamental, is being taken away from young women,” she claimed. “Itʼs being painted as a kind of freedom. I donʼt think young women themselves consider it to be a type of freedom, and I think a lot of them are worried about it.”

According to data from the Central Statistics Office, the average age of men who marry in Ireland is nearly 38, while the average age of women is nearly 36.

According to a 2022 poll, 85 percent of Irish people said they wanted at least two children, while only 2 percent said they wanted none.

Despite the desire to have children persisting in Irish society, birth rates have fallen almost 18 percent in the last decade.

OʼBrien noted that delaying childbearing into one’s thirties makes it far less likely that person will have any children at all.

“[I]tʼs part of the whole growth of individualism and this idea for kids, from the time theyʼre tiny, [that] you get your education, you travel, you have your career in order, you have fun, you donʼt tie yourself down, and then some time in your 30s, you think about settling down. But a lot of women in their mid-30s realize that it is increasingly difficult to conceive.”

“The fertility industry is booming, which does show us that people are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to have children, but the life script theyʼve been presented with is actually working against their best interests,” O’Brien stated. “Nature has no knowledge of this life script that young people are being presented with.”

“It is a phenomenon we should discuss far more widely if our aim is to help people achieve their eventual life goals,” she continued. “I think among people of faith, they are still prioritizing children and family, and marriage. The Catholic Church needs to support those young families in every way possible.”

She emphasized that having fewer or no children “has very significant social and economic consequences because of the effects of an aging population and growing loneliness.”

The Iona Institute report highlighted the difficult social and economic problems that will arise from a shrinking working-age population that must care for a larger number of elderly people.

“In Ireland, thereʼs still a degree of respect for older people, but one of the awful possible consequences is that younger people will start to resent older people,” O’Brien pointed out.

She also warned that Ireland may face challenges similar to those of countries already further down the path of demographic collapse.

“Other countries are further along the road than we are,” O’Brien said. “South Korea, or even Japan, where theyʼre repurposing childcare facilities for eldercare facilities, moving from baby formula to fortified drinks for the elderly, and from producing diapers for children, to producing incontinence products for the elderly – this is not a good road that weʼre on.”