Women misestimate number of kids.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

Regardless of their level of education, most women in the U.S. expect to have a pair of offspring, but those with more education tend to have fewer than two, while those with less schooling usually have more, maintains sociologist S. Philip Morgan, author of an article detailing a study on fertility intentions in Population and Development Review.

The two trends balance out for the country as a whole, he indicates, leaving overall fertility levels in the U.S. steady even as millions of American women discover their dreams for childbearing diverging from the reality of their lives. "The average woman misses her target by one birth. Women are more likely to miss their target than to hit it, and their level of education is an excellent predictor of whether they will miss the target high or low."

Morgan found a number of...