Socioeconomic inequalities shape the ways in which people form families. Denise B. Musni and Christine Schnor show that these inequalities influence women’s likelihood of becoming a mother while single, but in a complex way. Single women with high socioeconomic status are less likely to have a child without a partner at younger ages, but they are more likely to do so later in life.
Belgian birth records show that 15,000 to 17,000 children have been born yearly to single women in recent years, i.e. some 12% to 14% of all births (Statbel, n.d.). The dominant stereotype of women who have a child while single is that of a young mother who got pregnant by accident. Yet among children born to single mothers, the share born to women aged 35+ increased from 19% in 2011 to 24% in 2022. This reflects the diversity of situations leading to single motherhood – unintended pregnancies, breakups, death of a partner – that may happen at different points in life. Several studies have investigated the small but growing number of women who decided to have a child on their own, often in their late 30s to early 40s, becoming “solo mothers” or “single mothers by choice”.
Education, income, and the timing of single motherhood
In a recent study, using Belgian population registers, we tracked childless women aged 25 and over from 2005 to 2015 during times when they were single, and we found that the links between becoming a single mother, education, and income were not the same for younger and older single women (Musni and Schnor 2025).
At young ages (25 to 29), women are most likely to have a child while single if they have low education and low income. Yet this association appears to reverse with age. At later ages, the likelihood is highest among highly educated, high income single women (Figure 1).
What about single, childless women in their mid-30s with declining fecundity? We find that the more educated a woman is, the higher her likelihood of having a child while single at ages 35 and older. The links between income and single motherhood at later ages seem to depend on educational level. The risk of single motherhood declines with increasing income for most women. However, a positive relationship between income and later-age single motherhood is observed for women with university degrees or longer periods of study.
The privilege of choice
At younger ages, advantaged women can afford to delay childbearing to focus on other life goals. Meanwhile, women with less education and income may perceive limited options for improving their socioeconomic situation and hence be more accepting of unplanned pregnancies. In Belgium, these women also face taller hurdles if they wish to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. If they exceed the 12-week post-conception abortion limit they are obliged to travel abroad (often to the Netherlands) for expensive procedures.
At later ages, some single women may prefer to have a child on their own rather than risk never becoming a mother. We found that this is especially the case for highly educated women, even at lower income levels. This implies that higher education brings resources beyond income that make solo motherhood more feasible: flexible or part-time work or a network of more advantaged family and friends.
Interestingly, high income makes single motherhood at later ages more likely, but only for highly educated women. Even if tertiary education is becoming more accessible, it appears that women with university degrees tend to behave differently from those with other forms of higher education. This may reflect class-based differences in the type of higher education people pursue.
Our results mirror studies on solo mothers who are both highly educated and financially stable (Golombok, 2015; Jadva et al., 2009; Volgsten & Schmidt, 2021). Higher education is often linked to being more open to non-traditional pathways towards family formation, while high income enables the realization of fertility intentions. High income also allows access to medically assisted reproduction (MAR) – the most common conception method for single women. In Belgium, these women have legal access to MAR and the state covers around 80% of treatment fees. Yet the costs of donor sperm, co-payments, and the possibility of needing multiple cycles may be too expensive for some. Fertility clinics (and adoption services) may also favour women with stable finances when screening prospective solo mothers (e.g., Hertogs et al., 2021).
On the flipside, it appears that low-educated women who remain single and childless at later ages are the most at risk of never bearing children. This suggests that parenthood is increasingly becoming a privilege that many are unable to experience.
If postponement is characteristic of highly educated women, why are some less educated women still single and childless in their mid-30s? It is important to recognize that less educated women also face challenges. For one, they have more limited access to social and leisure activities where they might meet potential partners with whom to have a child (de Graaf & Kalmijn, 2003). Also, it would be amiss to assume that economic factors do not influence the childbearing decisions of older less-educated women: a temporary break in the labour market due to a birth may have irreparable negative consequences on earnings and future employment.
Conclusions
These results highlight how socioeconomic inequalities influence who becomes a mother and when. Although structural changes are necessary to ensure that people have equal opportunities to form the families they want, governments could begin tackling family-formation barriers by ensuring livable wages, stable work-life balance with good leave benefits and adaptable working hours, and affordable childcare. Parents-to-be and current parents must be able to adjust work arrangements to accommodate domestic needs without fearing negative economic consequences.
References
de Graaf, P. M., & Kalmijn, M. (2003). Alternative Routes in the Remarriage Market: Competing-Risk Analyses of Union Formation after Divorce. Social Forces, 81(4), 1459–1498. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2003.0052
Golombok, S. (2015). Solo mother families. In Modern families: Parents and children in new family forms (pp. 138–162). Cambridge University Press.
Hertogs, P., Van Gasse, D., Spikic, S., & Mortelmans, D. (2021). Fertility Practitioners’ Coping Strategies When Faced with Intra-Role Conflict from Screening Aspiring Single Mothers by Choice. Social Sciences, 10(11), 438. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10110438
Jadva, V., Badger, S., Morrissette, M., & Golombok, S. (2009). ‘Mom by choice, single by life’s circumstance…’ Findings from a large scale survey of the experiences of single mothers by choice. Human Fertility, 12(4), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.3109/14647270903373867
Musni, D. B., & Schnor, C. (2025). The Changing Links Between Socioeconomic Status and Single Women’s Entry Into Parenthood. Journal of Marriage and Family. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70006
Statbel. (n.d.). Statistique des naissances et de la fécondité 2011-2022 (datasets). https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/births-and-fertility#figures
Volgsten, H., & Schmidt, L. (2021). Motherhood through medically assisted reproduction – characteristics and motivations of Swedish single mothers by choice. Human Fertility, 24(3), 219–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647273.2019.1606457