Feel like it’s about time to start a family? Is having a baby a top priority? If you’re unattached but eager to welcome a little one into your life then EliteSingles’ most recent survey might be able to help – we’ve discovered where the UK’s broodiest singles live.
The towns where the desire for having a baby is strong, and where it’s not
As a couple, deciding that you’re having a baby is possibly one of the most momentous life decisions you can take. It therefore makes complete sense that you’re both certain it’s the correct choice, and that your partner is indeed the right person for you!
Whilst EliteSingles is in no position to be dishing out parenting tips, our proven forte is based on helping singles find a partner they’d want to forge a meaningful relationship with (of which having a baby could be an integral part!). And by surveying a sample group of 350,000 EliteSingles’ users, we were able to reveal which towns are home to the most broody British singles, and those that aren’t too fussed about children.
We found that singles who live in London and in towns surrounding the city want to have babies more than anywhere else in the country. In our capital city, 52% of singles want to have children – a far higher percentage than our national average of 45.5%! The results, based on the percentage of users that replied “yes” to the question “could you imagine having children or adopting with your partner and raising a family,” are as follows:
The UK’s Broodiest towns…*
1. London (52%)
2. Uxbridge (51%)
3. Croydon (49.5%)
4. Harrow (49%)
5. Richmond (48.5%)
*refers to the percentage of singles who say ‘yes’ to wanting children
Of course, not every single person dreams of tiny socks and 3am feedings, so the study also uncovered the least baby-crazy towns in the UK. We found that people who lived up North are much less broody than their Southern counterparts.
…and the least broody*
1. Mansfield (21%)
2. Doncaster (20.5%)
3. Barnsley (19.5%)
4. Wakefield (19.2%)
5. Kettering (19%)
* % refers to the percentage of singles who say ‘no’ to wanting children
Big city babies: Singles in large cities across the world love kids!
With top spot going to London, it may come as a bit of a shock to see the UK’s most densely populated city heading up the leader board as home to some of the country’s broodiest singles. Indeed, having a baby isn’t the first activity that springs to mind when picturing your average city dweller!
However, this is a phenomenon that’s also been reported in other countries where EliteSingles has run similar studies. For example, our research team recently revealed Paris as the most child-friendly city in France. In the US, the most child-friendly singles live in New York and Los Angeles, whilst in Sweden, Stockholm topped the list. In Australia, both Sydney and Melbourne made it into the top 5.
One more reasoned explanation for this trend is that bigger cities are made up of a slightly younger demographic. Still of an age where having a baby is a possibility, yet not quite old enough to have take it too seriously, this cohort of singles are likely to be a bit more optimistic about what the future holds. On the contrary, older people are perhaps less inclined to want to have kids, maybe because they’ve already had them (or never wanted them in the first place!).
Men vs. Women: who’s the biggest baby boomer?
Another interesting finding that the survey turned up was the difference in desire for having a baby across the gender divide. It would appear that common stereotypes are somewhat accurate when it comes to women being more broody than men – 46% single women included in the study said they’d like to have kids at some point, whereas only 42% of single men felt the pull of fatherhood.
What’s more, men were far more uncertain as to whether or not they could see themselves with a child – 46% of male members replied “don’t know” when asked what they felt about siring children. Conversely, a much smaller 40% of women couldn’t give to a straight yes/no answer. Not sure if you want children or not? Consider a move to Chesterfield. Just over half (51%)* of the city’s singles hadn’t yet made up their mind whether they wanted kids or not – far higher percentage than our national average of 42%.
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