Study Confirms Liberals Have Fewer Kids Than Conservatives
August 26, 2026
Liberal Americans have and desire fewer children than conservatives, according to a June 2026 report by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) titled “The Ideological Fertility Divide.” The report, based on survey results from more than 7,000 Americans aged 18-54, shows statistically significant gaps between ideology types in both the number of children adults currently have and the number of children they want. This gap is due, at least in part, to higher fears about parenting among liberals.
Results
The headline result is that conservative adults have 1.40 children on average, compared to an average of 1.09 for liberals. Another way of framing these data is that conservatives have 28% more children than liberals.
