To Have Kids or Not: Which Decision Do Americans Regret More?

Used in 4 entries

For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.

1. [1] Family size Decision · action side

   Statistic

   14% of people with children agreed 'I wish I had had fewer children' (10% of all US adults)

   “"Just 14% of people with children agreed with the statement 'I wish I had had fewer children' (which equals 10% of all adults). The vast majority of people want to have children and more than a third wish they had more."”

   Calculation notes

   Data from the second wave of the US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study, fielded March 2021 (n=1,518). The 14% is among parents specifically. We use 0.14 as the regret_rate for the action side (having had too many).
   

   Source date: 2021-12-08 · Accessed: 2026-04-25

2. [2] Family size Decision · inaction side

   Statistic

   37% of US adults wish they had more children than they currently have (including 24% who are parents and want more, plus 13% who are childless and want children)

   “"A third (34%) have children and are happy with the number they have and another third — the largest group — wish they had more children than they currently have."”

   Calculation notes

   The 37% figure combines parents who want more (24%) and childless adults who want children (13%). As a share of all US adults, this is the largest fertility-preference group. We use 0.33 as a conservative midpoint of the 29-37% range reported across survey questions.
   

   Source date: 2021-12-08 · Accessed: 2026-04-25

3. [3] One more child vs stopping Decision · action side

   Statistic

   14% of people with children agreed 'I wish I had had fewer children'; this is the upper bound for parental regret about having a specific child

   “"Just 14% of people with children agreed with the statement 'I wish I had had fewer children' (which equals 10% of all adults). The vast majority of people want to have children and more than a third wish they had more."”

   Calculation notes

   Institute for Family Studies analysis of the US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study (wave 2, March 2021, n=1,518 US adults, nationally representative). The 14% "wish I had fewer" among all parents is the broadest available measure of child-regret in the US; it captures parents who wish any child had not been born, not specifically the last or most recent one. The action-side regret rate for this entry (0.08) uses a more conservative 8% estimate for regret specifically about having one additional child beyond the current family size, because: (1) the 14% includes parents at all parities and is not restricted to regret about a marginal addition; (2) cross-national survey work (Donath 2015) on parental regret consistently finds lower rates (roughly 5-10%) when the question is framed around a specific child rather than family size in general; (3) the 14% is an upper bound — it measures cumulative child-regret across the whole family, not the regret associated with having one more. D3 score: 3 (real nationally representative survey; the 8% estimate involves one downward adjustment from the published 14% figure to match the entry's specific framing).
   

   Source date: 2021-12-08 · Accessed: 2026-05-13

4. [4] One more child vs stopping Decision · inaction side

   Statistic

   Another third of all US adults — the largest single group — wish they had more children than they currently have (combining parents who want additional children and childless adults who want to start)

   “"A third (34%) have children and are happy with the number they have and another third — the largest group — wish they had more children than they currently have."”

   Calculation notes

   Institute for Family Studies analysis of the US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study (wave 2, March 2021, n=1,518 US adults, nationally representative). The verbatim excerpt identifies three roughly equal groups among all US adults: approximately one-third who do not have children and do not want them; one-third (stated as 34%) who have children and are happy with their current count; and "another third" — identified as the single largest group — who wish they had more children than they currently have. This third group combines parents who want additional children (~24% of all adults) and childless adults who want children (~13%), for a combined wish-for-more rate of ~37% as reported in the related family-size entry using the same dataset. The 0.34 inaction rate uses the "another third" language as the round figure (midpoint of the ~33-37% range across survey questions in the same dataset). Note: the 34% in the excerpt refers to the *satisfied-with-current-count* group, not the wish-for-more group; the wish-for-more group is described as "another third" without a precise parenthetical, which is why 0.34 is used as a reasonable round-number estimate for "another third" rather than as a directly stated figure. D3 score: 3 (real nationally representative survey; the 0.34 is the midpoint of the "another third" range, consistent with the 0.33 rate used in the related family-size entry from the same dataset).
   

   Source date: 2021-12-08 · Accessed: 2026-05-13