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More than a quarter of Michigan adults don't want kids - and they're just as satisfied with their lives as parents, a study published Wednesday in the journal Plos One found.

Unlike most past research that's lumped together all nonparents, the study authors asked participants about their parenting plans and desires to distinguish between four types of people: Parents, people who are child-free by choice, people who want or wanted kids but can't have them, and people who want kids eventually.

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They found that 27% of adults were voluntary nonparents - a percentage that dwarfs past research estimates of 2% to 9%. While fewer people are choosing parenthood these days, the MSU psychologists say the gap in estimates more likely reflects stronger research methods. Past studies have largely only surveyed women, relied on fertility rates, or not been representative.

Parents, meanwhile, tended to feel less warm toward nonparents than nonparents felt toward each other, an indication that childless people are still viewed as an "outgroup," the study authors say, despite their prevalence.

That attitude "may have real effects," they write, "for example, in limiting child-free individuals' ability to request the same work-life balance accommodations offered to parents."

The current study, which was conducted in spring 2020, could reflect that and show a higher number of voluntary nonparents than in normal circumstances. However, the rate is in line with a pre-pandemic Pew study asking people under 50 if they ever expected to have kids.

The MSU psychologists called for more research on childless-by-choice people, particularly regarding when and how they make that decision.

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More than a quarter of US adults say they don't want kids, and they are just as happy as parents - Business Insider India