The size of the average family seems to be getting smaller, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Researchers looked at women born in England and Wales in 1964 and compared them with their mother's generation, represented by women born in 1937.
By 2009, they had on average 1.9 children, while at a similar stage in their lives their mothers had on average 2.4 children.
Levels of childlessness are also higher for the younger generation.
Twenty per cent of women born in 1964 are childless, compared to 12% of women born in 1937.
That is a 44-year-high, comparable to women born in 1920 whose early 20s - when they would have been most likely to start a family - coincided with WWII.
