Marriage 'increases parenthal odds'

A new study has concluded that women cohabiting with their partners are less likely to have children than those who are married.

The review by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that data indicates "lack of a co-resident partner to be one of the main factors associated with childlessness".

The ONS report, however, said: "The majority of women in the sample (68%) who were childless nevertheless still lived with a partner - either married or cohabiting - at some point during the course of the study."

According to figures from the ONS, 17% of the 1956-1960 born women who stayed in England and Wales throughout their child-bearing years were still childless in their early 40s.

The study of over 12,700 women has also linked the fertility declines in the 1980s and 1990s to lifelong childlessness.

The growing proportion of women choosing a career over raising a family is still one of the key reasons for childlessness, the research said.

In 2001, when the women in the study were between 40 and 45, about 30% of mothers were working in comparison to about 42% of childless women.

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