Family Expectations
A longitudinal study on family size in the USA, 1974 - 2020
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics questioned young adults about how many children they expect to have. During their lifetime, they were revisited and reported on their actual family size. Women were generally better at predicting their future family size, while men overestimated the number of children they would have. Most people had two children.
Actual Children Symbols
○
No children
●
One child
V
Two children
▲
Three children
+
Four or more children
Data by Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, 1979-2020 (rounds 1-29). Visualization by Aliaksandra Shymanskaya.