These Surprising Age Groups of Women Are Having More Children

This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but the latest National Vital Statistics Report from the Centers for Disease Control shows that the number of women over 40 (and 50!) having children is on the rise.

Women ages 40-44 have had a 2% uptick in the birth rate statistics between 2013 and 2014, and the number of women over 50 have children grew from 677 in 2013 to 743 in 2014. While these numbers seem small, researchers are saying they’re significant, especially given the notable drops in pregnancies amongst teens and people in their early 20s and the societal changes in the roles of women.

 

 

There are a number of reasons why women are putting off having children, including establishing careers, holding out until top jobs, and a plethora of other factors.

One thing’s for sure: It’ll be interesting to see where this trend goes in the next several years and decades.

You can read more about the phenomenon on Fortune.

Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.

By Lily Herman on January 19, 2016
Lily is the Managing Editor at HelloFlo, where she oversees all editorial and social media operations for the brand. In addition to her work at HF, she's co-founder and CEO of The Prospect, the largest student-run college access organization in the world. Her work has been featured on TIME, Forbes, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Mashable, USA TODAY and Lifehacker. You can perpetually find her on Twitter.