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E.g. Do I say "I have zero or one child" or "I have zero or one children"?

Intradiction
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    Strictly speaking, number agreement goes with the closest word, in the same way as the verb does. In your sentence, it would be: I have zero or *one* child. If you reversed the words, it would be: I have one or *zero* children. However, neither version sounds good. I would rephrase it. (1) I have less than two children. (2) I have either no children or one child. (3) I have one child or none at all. (4) If I have any children at all, it's just one. Or simply: I have zero children or I have one child. – Jason Bassford Dec 28 '18 at 16:28
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    Nobody would ever say I have zero or one child/children, no matter what the suffix was. Zero is the name for a symbol, not a negative morpheme except metaphorically. If one doesn't know how many children one has, but is certain that there's no more than one, one could say I have at most one child; but that is an extremely remote context, for which no language has built-in constructions. – John Lawler Dec 28 '18 at 16:40
  • Oh my bad I should have given the actual context. I actually wanted to say "Percentage of families with zero or one child." – Intradiction Dec 28 '18 at 17:05

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