Ideal number of children

chldidel

Source

General Social Survey https://gss.norc.org

Details

Question 211. What do you think is the ideal number of children for a family to have?

Overview

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	no answer	skipped on web	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
2024	32	59	826	442	153	33	12	13	555	43	1126	4	11	3309
Total	591	1107	23243	10978	4929	735	339	204	5001	1365	27192	4	11	75699

Values

• 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(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