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Freakonomics: Most fathers are either not married or have no children [Article, Infographic]

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Jul 12, 2017 12:04:23 PM

Cute portrait of a father and daughter - isolated over white .jpeg

Freakonomics: Most fathers are either not married or have no children

This is a realisation I made when researching for data around fathers as I want to figure out who I can help most with Marathon-Crossfit for forming new habits. My hunch is that based on my experience and background I can help stepfathers, adolescents without a father and single mothers most credibly. This would be based on forming better habits and discipline as these always helped me excel.

My reasoning might be flawed and please point it out in the comments section if you think that it is the case. The way i see it is that most fathers actually have no children which was a light bulb event for me like the ones which are describedin the excellent book Freakonomics. Depending on the country you are living in the status "child" depends on whether your children are of legal adult age. Once they pass that line they are not your children anymore due to a change of legal status to grown ups. This shows you that there are many different definitions of the same thing and you always should look at the underlygin data of a headline.

Fathers with no children

Lets say you father four children in two different marriages, three in the first, one in the second you are a father to all of them, but they are not necessarily defined as children to you depending on how old they are. Lets say their age is 29, 28 and 25 and the  child from the second marriage is 4. In this scenario you are a father of four but you legally only have one child (biologically it is different of course).

Another subgroup in this bracket is the very small group of dads who take care of stepchildren and have no biological children. They are fathers in some way, but never had children. This group is not reflected in the Infographic below, while the first one is.

Fathers who are not married

This group is easier to get your head around. This is the group of dads who either had nonmarital children willingly or unwillingly. To get a bit of insight for you I have oincluded the data on birth rates in this graphic. 

 

 

Most fathers are not married and or have no children .jpg

Topics: Dad, Stepdad, Fatherhood