When it comes to delaying maternity to pursue careers and other aspirations of life, women in the bay region direct the nation.
This region houses most of women with children at 40 and over – a trend that experts are up to a combination of economic opportunities, progressive social standards and access to reproductive technology.
According to data, three of the five American counties with the largest proportion of women with children in their forties are in Northern California, according to data recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported by San Francisco Chronicle.
At the top of the list is the county of sailor, where 11.4% of women who gave birth in 2023 were at least 40 years old. San Francisco arrived in second place with 10.9%, while the County of San Mateo ranked fifth with 8.7%.
Los Angeles landed in 15th place at 7.3%. The list includes all the counties of the United States with at least 100,000 residents.
Dr. Mary Hinckley, FIV medical director at the Baie region reproductive Science Center, said that she was not surprised to see the region leading the older pregnancies, because many women have granted careers and other life experiences before the start of a family.
The bay region embraces modern forms of family structures which may or may not include children and, in general, do not largely promote a culture where women feel traditional societal pressures to create a young family, she said. About half of its patients at the fertility clinic are at least 38 years old.
“I think there is a business spirit for women here to simply take care of their lives, to advance their career, to pursue more schooling, more life experiences and that forces them to arrive later,” she said. “I find so many patients who come to see me after having hiked Mont Kilimandjaro, surfed at Costa Rica, created a business, changed jobs and now they are ready to have children.”
The average age of a woman giving birth in the counties of San Francisco and Marin is respectively 33.6 years and 33.5 years. At the national level, the average age is 29.6 and in the county of the, it is 31.2.
The proportion of American women giving birth at 40 and over has increased significantly in the past three decades – from 1.3% in 1990 to 4.1% in 2023, according to the CDC.
Dr. Mary Hinckley, an expert in reproductive science reproductive science center in the bay region, examined an ultrasound on May 1, 2025. Hinckley said that about half of its clients in the fertility clinic are 38 and over.
(Center for reproduction sciences in the Bay region)
Hinckley said many women in the bay region could feel more confident by delaying maternity unit because the region has some of the country’s best fertility clinics, which gives women a better chance to have a successful pregnancy at a later age. Clinics can reduce the risk of false layers in women aged 40% to 10% by performing genetic tests on embryos created with in vitro fertilization before being implanted, she said.
Employers have probably also played a role in helping women become new mothers later than past generations.
Companies in the Bay region offer part of the country’s best covers for egg freezing and fertility treatment as an incentive to recruit young talented workers, Hinckley said.
“How do you bring these young people and the intelligent people to give to the twenties and even the 1930s to work until midnight?” She said. “Well, you do it by promising an avenue to be able to preserve their fertility so that they can still have children.”
Other counties who ranked among the first 10 for birth between women aged 40 and over were in metropolitan areas of Washington, DC and New York – two centers for lucrative and demanding careers.
Women are also perfectly aware that their bank accounts will take a hit when their little bunch of joy will arrive.
In California, the average cost of childcare services for a child is $ 21,945, which represents 18.4% of the income of a median family, according to an analysis of federal data by the Economic Policy Institute. New parents also pay for medical costs, diapers, clothing and feeding supplies.
An intermediate income family with two children could expect to spend more than $ 310,000, adjusted for higher future inflation, to raise a child born in 2015 at 17, according to an analysis in 2022 of the Brookings Institution.
Elizabeth Gregory, director of studies on gender and sexuality of women at the University of Houston, interviewed more than 100 women about their choice to delay having children for a book on subsequent maternity. One of the most common reasons mentioned was the desire for greater economic stability and child care.
“It is not only that they want to have a career, which is part of history, but they also want their careers, they earn enough to support their children,” said Gregory. “They just don’t want to be in poverty, where many young mothers live.”
A study by the University of Virginia revealed that for each year, a woman is waiting to start a family, her lifetime profits increase by 3%.
In the counties of Marin and San Francisco, the annual median income for a woman with a full -time job is more than $ 100,000 – almost double the national median income for the same group at $ 55,240, according to an analysis of the American census of Neilsberg Research.
These higher wages also allow women to more easily afford reproduction technologies such as egg freezing and IVF, which may be necessary as fertility decreases in the middle at the end of the 1930s and 40s.
Subsequent pregnancies have a higher risk of complications such as miscarriage, high blood pressure and chromosomal anomalies such as Down syndrome. However, modern reproduction technology can mitigate some of these risks.
In addition to the economic gain, many women delay maternity to take advantage of the relatively new opportunity to exercise their voice in the workplace.
“There is a whole dynamic around women who need to embark on positions where they can be heard,” said Gregory. “I think they understand that for example, going to a world in which the daycare services could be affordable, we must have more women’s voices in roles of policies.”
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