Over time, family sizes have decreased and women are having fewer children by the age of 30 compared to previous generations.

The average family size for women born in 1942 – for example – was 2.29 children per mother. In contrast, their daughters’ generation – represented by women born in 1969 – had on average 1.91 children per mother. Meanwhile, women born in 1984 had fewer children on average (1.02) by their 30th birthday than women born in 1969 – who had 1.12 children by the same age.

Use our calculator below to enter both your year of birth and your mother’s year of birth – or any other generation(s) you like. How do the different childbearing patterns compare?

Download the data.