Report Links Friends' Attitudes and 'Pet Parenting' to Family Plans. Chore Split Shows No Effect

Housing costs and lopsided housework don't fully explain why birth rates keep falling, according to a new report from the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institute. The authors point to culture instead.

The survey covered nearly 10,000 respondents across more than a dozen countries. It looked at what shapes whether couples start or add to a family.

What the survey found

One of the strongest associations involved friends. Respondents who believed their friends would celebrate a new baby reported a 10% larger desired family size. They were also 20% more likely to intend to have another child.

"All around the world, we just found that friends are really important," said Lyman Stone, senior fellow and director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies. "Where peer culture ratifies and encourages family life, family life is more successful."

The link extended to public figures. People who admired a celebrity with more children than they had were 14% more likely to intend to have another child.

Then there are pets. Respondents who said they preferred being a "pet parent" to having children reported a 30% lower desired family size. Their intentions to have more children dropped 50%.

Stone was careful about where he put the blame. "The animal is not the problem. The problem is the attitude," he said. "That says that, you know, changing a litter box is truly as meaningful as changing a diaper. And I just have to tell you, it isn't."

The chore theory takes a hit

The report also tested a popular idea: if men did more around the house, couples would have more kids. It found no statistically significant relationship between family planning and either the division of household responsibilities or how fair couples felt that division was.

"There's been a lot of research on, you know, 'If men did more laundry, would birth rates go up? If men helped out more at home, would birth rates go up?' And the answer is basically no," Stone said.

He added that involved fatherhood has surged without reversing the trend. "The last 30 years have seen a revolution in involved fatherhood. Dads are doing more at home than ever before and fertility rates keep plummeting."

Stone's broader case rests on a comparison. "Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn have six kids each. Their hipster neighbors have 1.6 kids each," he said. "They live in the same economy. They have very different outcomes. Why? Different culture."

The money argument hasn't gone away

Other research points the opposite direction on cost. A study on "social infertility" conducted for the IVI Institute found almost 40% of women are becoming mothers later than they want to, with an average delay of six years. That delay led to women having fewer children than they had originally wished.

The most common reasons the women gave: they felt too young, didn't have enough money, or hadn't met the right partner. Money is on that list in the women's own words, which sits uneasily next to the IFS conclusion that economics doesn't tell the whole story. The IFS report says housing costs don't fully explain the decline. It does not say they play no role.

The numbers behind the worry

The UK fertility rate fell to a record low of 1.39 children per woman in 2025, down from 1.9 in 2010. Replacement level is 2.1. UK live births dropped to 585,000 in 2025, the lowest annual total in 50 years.

Helen Coffey, writing in The Independent on Oct. 19, offered her own theory: that adults are delaying childhood's end. She cited US toy data showing adult-only households made 55% of toy purchases in the first six months of 2026. Sales to buyers over 18 grew 16% from January to July compared with a year earlier. That outpaced households with children and drove the toy industry's best first half in six years.

Coffey's argument is a column, not research. Adult toy buying doesn't show that anyone skipped having a child because of it, and the IFS pet-parent finding is similarly an association in survey answers.

What the data can and can't tell us

The IFS report measures intentions and attitudes. People who say their friends would cheer a baby may well go on to have one. The survey does not follow respondents to see whether they do.

The open question is direction. Supportive friends may encourage families, or people who already want kids may simply surround themselves with friends who share that view. The IFS authors read the pattern as cultural influence. The report's numbers show a link, and the cause is still unsettled.