The CDC released a report for 2015-2019 in terms of the rates of parenting biological children by age and gender. What it found was that by the age of 40-49, around 84% of women have had at least one biological child whilst only 76.5% of men in that same age group had ever fathered a biological child. WHy is this number so low? I thought it was low sample size but they used tens of thousands of responses for the data which is a huge number. Also I cant help but notice that by the ages of 30-35, only around half of men ever fathered a child whilst more than 70% of women had. Isnt this like the prime childbearing age where most people have children? The number for men also jumps to 70% from 50% but that occurs in their late 30s.

This is all very confusing to me. I thought that more than 90% of people would have had children by their mid 30s. Why are these numbers so low? Does it reflect the fact that people dont want kids or something else such as a shifting dating culture. Only 3/4 men by their mid 40s will ever father a child which seems very low.