How common is it to have more than two children?

13 comments

1. More common than not.

2. Extremely common

3. I think it’s partly generational.

   I’m in my late 30s, and I don’t personally know anyone under the age of 40 with more than two kids.

   I’m an only child, but more than half the 30- and 40-somethings I know have two or more siblings.

   My parents have six siblings between them, and my husband’s parents have a combined total of 12 (I think?) siblings. Large families used to be more common… and three or more children didn’t used to be a “large” family!

4. In 2022, about 7 million households had 3 or more children under 18, compared with 27 million that had 1 or 2 children under 18. So, everyone knows many families with more than 2 children, but most are having 2 or fewer.

   https://www.statista.com/statistics/183790/number-of-families-in-the-us-by-number-of-children/

5. According to slightly dated statistics, 62% of mothers aged 40-44 (so close to the end of reproductive age) had 1-2 children and 38% had 3+ children.

   Conclusion: pretty common, but not as common as 1 or 2.

   Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/09/middle-children-have-become-rarer-but-a-growing-share-of-americans-now-say-three-or-more-kids-are-ideal/

6. It might be cultural, but it’s common here. Me and all my Mexican friends have multiple siblings.

7. Depends on your state and your religion.

   Places like pacific northwest and New england it’s more common to have 1 or 2 kids.

   Out in the West or Muslim or Mormon or Evangelical – more likely to have a 3rd.

8. It’s less common with each passing generation.

9. My dad was one of 7, my mom was one of 3, I’m one of two. I know people my age who have 6 or so other siblings, and there are several factors that could contribute to that. ie different cultures, religions, etc.

   2 or 3 kids seems common. Any more than that would probably be a bit more uncommon, but not nearly unheard of.

10. Depends on where you live. Where I live, 3-4 is quite common. More than 4 is a little odd. My wife’s sister has 9, and that gets them some surprised looks, but they’re hardly unique.

11. Average is like 1.9 of something. I’m one of 4. The youngest of us is going to be 33 this year and none of us have kids. The crazy thing is that each of us are economically better off than our parents were. It’s just not a priority for us

12. It’s becoming less common as time goes on. We have three girls. I was the oldest of five, my wife was the oldest of four.

    In my area of Alabama I feel like three or more is more common than under three.

13. Very