Younger women are more likely to want children one day. Only half of women (51%) aged 25-35 said that they definitely or probably hope to have children one day, compared to two-thirds (66%) of those aged 18-24. Almost one in three (30%) women aged 25-35 said that they would probably or definitely not have children, decreasing to one in five (22%) of those aged 18-24.

When barriers are removed, women are far more likely to want children. Only one in ten women (13% of 18-24 and 12% aged 25-35) said that they would ideally have no children, despite 89% and 49% respectively in each age group currently not having any children. The mean number of children women would ideally have is 2.35.

There is a strong case to be made for improved fertility education, both within school and beyond. Polling on infertility awareness in the final question produced alarming results. For example, more selected ‘don’t know’ (37%) than the right answer (34%) on how many couples infertility affects, the number of those who selected ‘lower numbers of children being born in the UK would either not matter or lead to mostly positive consequences for society’ was almost double (30%) that of those who selected the opposing statement (18%) and only one in four women (25%) know that waiting to start a family until you’re over 30 means women face a fifty percent chance of never having children.