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General Social Survey https://gss.norc.org
Question 211. What do you think is the ideal number of children for a family to have?
For further details see the official GSS documentation.
Counts by year:
| year | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 or more | as many as you want | don't know | iap | Total |
| 1972 | 27 | 19 | 638 | 375 | 286 | 49 | 43 | 18 | 97 | 61 | - | 1613 |
| 1973 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1504 | 1504 |
| 1974 | 17 | 30 | 651 | 346 | 231 | 32 | 15 | 6 | 116 | 40 | - | 1484 |
| 1975 | 16 | 28 | 712 | 347 | 216 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 89 | 46 | - | 1490 |
| 1976 | 31 | 49 | 753 | 298 | 192 | 27 | 11 | 6 | 94 | 38 | - | 1499 |
| 1977 | 16 | 28 | 736 | 347 | 222 | 37 | 11 | 12 | 91 | 30 | - | 1530 |
| 1978 | 16 | 26 | 752 | 353 | 196 | 34 | 14 | 8 | 85 | 48 | - | 1532 |
| 1980 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1468 | 1468 |
| 1982 | 17 | 54 | 934 | 350 | 259 | 37 | 24 | 22 | 104 | 59 | - | 1860 |
| 1983 | 17 | 27 | 815 | 370 | 195 | 23 | 15 | 3 | 91 | 43 | - | 1599 |
| 1984 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1473 | 1473 |
| 1985 | 16 | 38 | 840 | 331 | 165 | 27 | 9 | 10 | 64 | 34 | - | 1534 |
| 1986 | 15 | 24 | 742 | 359 | 185 | 25 | 15 | 5 | 70 | 30 | - | 1470 |
| 1987 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1819 | 1819 |
| 1988 | 17 | 16 | 496 | 252 | 111 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 49 | 20 | 493 | 1481 |
| 1989 | 11 | 27 | 536 | 213 | 89 | 26 | 8 | 6 | 53 | 37 | 531 | 1537 |
| 1990 | 10 | 17 | 502 | 217 | 90 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 43 | 29 | 444 | 1372 |
| 1991 | 11 | 28 | 537 | 221 | 103 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 61 | 40 | 493 | 1517 |
| 1993 | 10 | 37 | 595 | 216 | 90 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 61 | 52 | 526 | 1606 |
| 1994 | 27 | 50 | 1046 | 439 | 189 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 120 | 76 | 1015 | 2992 |
| 1996 | 24 | 54 | 1072 | 409 | 162 | 22 | 12 | 7 | 120 | 78 | 944 | 2904 |
| 1998 | 25 | 49 | 1005 | 365 | 163 | 17 | 11 | 8 | 157 | 71 | 961 | 2832 |
| 2000 | 24 | 64 | 946 | 439 | 153 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 134 | 94 | 940 | 2817 |
| 2002 | 13 | 29 | 447 | 223 | 81 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 79 | 14 | 1857 | 2765 |
| 2004 | 9 | 15 | 449 | 217 | 90 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 84 | 23 | 1906 | 2812 |
| 2006 | 22 | 42 | 963 | 506 | 161 | 23 | 14 | 6 | 214 | 41 | 2518 | 4510 |
| 2008 | 15 | 32 | 630 | 326 | 102 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 151 | 47 | 694 | 2023 |
| 2010 | 6 | 42 | 672 | 346 | 123 | 24 | 7 | 6 | 155 | 49 | 614 | 2044 |
| 2012 | 10 | 31 | 601 | 337 | 117 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 133 | 43 | 672 | 1974 |
| 2014 | 18 | 26 | 795 | 410 | 132 | 25 | 8 | 3 | 198 | 60 | 863 | 2538 |
| 2016 | 13 | 36 | 844 | 477 | 194 | 35 | 6 | 11 | 205 | 66 | 980 | 2867 |
| 2018 | 18 | 34 | 691 | 414 | 152 | 27 | 13 | 8 | 149 | 53 | 789 | 2348 |
| 2021 | 49 | 49 | 1076 | 501 | 160 | 22 | 9 | 3 | 824 | - | 1339 | 4032 |
| 2022 | 39 | 47 | 941 | 532 | 167 | 25 | 6 | 9 | 555 | - | 1223 | 3544 |
| Total | 559 | 1048 | 22417 | 10536 | 4776 | 702 | 327 | 191 | 4446 | 1322 | 26066 | 72390 |
7 7 or more
8 as many as you want
NA(d) don't know
NA(i) iap
NA(j) I don't have a job
NA(m) dk, na, iap
NA(n) no answer
NA(p) not imputable
NA(q) not imputable
NA(r) refused
NA(s) skipped on web
NA(u) uncodeable
NA(x) not available in this release
NA(y) not available in this year
NA(z) see codebook