Researchers who study family formation find that in the USA, the mother’s education level is still a critical factor for when she has that first child. According to a research brief published in 2007 by the non-profit Child Trends, only 7% of births to college educated women occur outside marriage. Still, childbearing outside marriage is climbing up the social-class ladder, Cherlin says, noting that now those with a high school or community college degree or who attended college are having kids and holding off on the wedding. “It used to be only the poor and near-poor who had children outside of marriage. Now, moderately educated Americans are doing it, too.”