Women with a university education are choosing to have children later in life, a British research reveals.

It shows that just over one in five female graduates become mothers by the age of 30. This compares to three in five in the mid-1970s.

Experts say the change is linked to women choosing to delay a family because they wish to pursue a career and good lifestyle.

The study, published in the journal Research in Public Policy, said: \'Changing participation in education can only explain one half of the decline.

\'What has driven fertility is not just that more women are now pursuing a higher level of education, but better-educated women have very different work and family trajectories than before.

\'The generations that saw the biggest increases in childlessness also saw big increases in full-time employment rates, suggesting that some women were choosing careers and not families.\'

The changes also mean many educated women are now childless, it added. One in ten women now aged 50 does not have children. But one out of five women in their 30s and 40s is without children. And the rate is still climbing.