One in five women is remaining childless as a growing proportion choose a career over raising a family, according to a study published yesterday.

The trend is most marked among women of higher social class, with better qualifications, and who were brought up as only children.

The study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that remaining childless is a lifestyle choice. In the past childlessness was due to poverty, poor nutrition and low marriage rates caused by war and emigration.

The proportion of women childless in England and Wales has increased from an estimated 10 per cent of a 1945 cohort to 19 per cent of women born in 1960.

“Studies have identified present-day childlessness as being different from childlessness in the past,” the report said. “This is because present-day childlessness is occurring increasingly often among healthy females who are living within marriage or cohabiting and who are sexually active.”

Although the study said that the lack of a co-resident partner was one of the main factors behind childlessness, it highlighted social and economic factors.

Childless women were more likely to be educated to degree level or above and were more likely to have professional or managerial jobs.

Forty-two per cent of childless women in the study had managerial or professional jobs compared with 30 per cent for women with children. “Our findings suggest that childless women have a slightly higher social and economic status, on average, as compared to the mothers group”, the study said.

It also found that childless women were more likely to be living in property they owned outright compared with mothers. The report added: “Irrespective of their partnership status, women’s own socioeconomic characteristics, including economic activity and social class, are significantly associated with childlessness.”

The study looked at more than 12,700 women born between 1956 and 1960 throughout their childbearing years to their mid-40s. It found that 17 per cent were childless, although that figure rose to 19 per cent for those born in 1960. A study involving women born in 1945 found only 10 per cent remained childless.

Separate ONS figures showed foreign-born mothers accounted for two thirds of the growth in births in the UK since 2001. However, British-born mothers are also having more babies. A further study showed that the proportion of cohabiting adults in England and Wales had almost doubled in 15 years, and accounts for one in ten adults.

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