Why we’re child-free and happy

ARIA Ungerer is in her mid-30s. She’s happy, successful, in a stable loving relationship, fulfilled in her life, and… avowedly childless. Or ‘child-free’ as she calls it.

Increasing numbers are joining her ranks. At a time when fertility treatments and adoption options are more plentiful than ever for those who want to have children, many people are choosing not to be parents.

Controversial research at the London School of Economics recently proposed a correlation between high female intelligence and childlessness. Satoshi Kanazawa analysed the UK’s National Child Development Study, which followed a group of people over 50 years, and found that childhood intelligence predicted childlessness in females.