Other demographic trends included the increasing number of Dutch women working outside of the home. The labor force participation rate of women in the Netherlands was 29 percent. This was much lower than the 50 percent or above in the United Kingdom or United States, but the number of women working outside the home was increasing faster in the Netherlands than it was in the United Kingdom or the United States. Dutch women were also delaying childbirth. As a result of these trends, women in the Netherlands were exhibiting greater self-confidence and independence; women had more disposable income and more of them were using it to buy cosmetics for use on a daily basis.