Richest 1% of Mid-Life Households Now Most Likely to Have Three or More Kids, One Analysis Finds
An analysis of Federal Reserve survey data finds the wealthiest mid-life households are now the most likely to have three or more children.
America's wealthiest mid-life households are now the most likely to have three or more children, a striking reversal of longstanding patterns, according to a new analysis.
The analysis, by economist Mike Konczal of the Economic Security Project, pools the Federal Reserve's five most recent Survey of Consumer Finances studies, dating back to 2013, and examines households whose reference person is between 45 and 64 years old.
It finds that 49 percent of households in the top 1 percent by income have three or more children, compared with about 40 percent of other high-income households. The gap is driven largely by families with exactly three children.
The analysis counts all of a household's children, including adopted children, stepchildren and children living outside the home, rather than births. One demographer cautions that higher remarriage rates among wealthy men may explain part of the difference, reports say.
The findings reflect one analysis of survey data, not a measure of national birth rates.