This paper investigates delayed childbearing and childlessness in European countries. There are three key objectives. First, to investigate whether a higher mean age at the birth of the first child is associated with a lower total fertility rate. Second, to investigate if countries with a higher mean age at the birth of the first child also have higher levels of childlessness. The third goal is to investigate how mothers differ from childless women in European countries and to see how women differ according to the number of children, while focusing on factors identified in the literature as relevant, such as education and marital status. The obtained results confirm the hypothesis that as the mean age at the birth of the first child increases, total fertility rate decreases. Also, in countries with a higher mean age at the birth of the first child, the level of childlessness among women is higher. Analysis of data from the European Social Survey for women aged 30 to 59 showed that in each of the five-year age cohorts considered there exists a difference in the average number of children between married, unmarried or widowed and divorced women. Also, the average number of children differs between women with low, medium and higher education. Furthermore, education is related to having/not having children only in the youngest age group (30 to 34 years). In the other age groups analysed, there is no connection between education and having/not having children. On the other hand, marital status is related to having/not having children in all observed age groups (30 to 59 years).