Finland’s birth rate has declined from 1.87 children per woman in 2010 to 1.25 in 2024 with 43,720 births, the lowest in nearly 250 years. The figure now sits well below the replacement rate of 2.1, raising pressing issues about reasons for the decline and its potential consequences on the Finnish society and the economy.
Although child-free ideals have gained ground among generations born after 1985, the main reason for the majority remains the perceived burdens associated with raising children, Kateryna Golovina, a researcher at the Family Federation of Finland (Väestöliitto) studying the psychosocial factors behind the current fertility decline in the Nordic countries, said.
Noting that the median age of mothers at the time of their first birth increased from 25.7 in 1984 to 30.02 in 2024, she pointed out the rising trend of delayed childbearing.
“The problem is that infertility cases have also increased,” she explained, highlighting the struggles of the people who delay pregnancy until after 35 and often encounter difficulties conceiving, which she thinks is under-reported.
Golovina’s research identifies two major psychosocial factors that help to explain the decline in fertility rates.
The first is the perception of an uncertain life situation. People are more likely to postpone or avoid having children when faced with a perceived uncertainty about their personal financial future or global circumstances such as wars, economic crises or climate change.
The second factor is the reluctance to change one’s way of life. This is fueled by intensive parenting expectations, the spread of individualistic values and life goals such as travelling and career ambitions, all of which discourage people from embracing parenthood.
“It was rather surprising that many people from different social and economic backgrounds described parenting as a burden and a sacrifice,” added Kateryna, reflecting on the impressions given by some women born in the late 1980s and early 1990s that she surveyed.
“People who suffer depression or other mental disorders are less likely to have a first child and are less likely to have a partner in the first place. They are more inclined to postpone childbearing or remain childless compared with those without mental health problems,” said Golovina explaining how mental health issues shape personal fertility decisions.
She added that the correlation between rising mental health problems and increasing infertility still requires further research.
In Finland, men with lower levels of education are more likely to remain single, experience unstable relationships and ultimately remain childless. For women, those with higher education are more likely to want, and to have, more children than their less educated counterparts, a reversal of past patterns according to the Väestöliitto researcher.
Fertility outcomes are also connected to people’s education and career paths, according to Julia Hellstrand, a University of Helsinki post-doctoral researcher on drivers and consequences of low fertility.
She said, “We found that quite a substantial share of the variation in the fertility decline between fields of education was explained by economic factors.”
According to Hellstrand, women and men educated in sectors such as health, welfare and education tend to record lower declines of total fertility rates compared with those working in other fields.
This is partly because such professions are seen as more compatible with work-family balance, particularly as they are often linked to public sector employment.
These careers are also perceived as care-oriented and female-friendly, offering greater flexibility that supports parenting. As a result, women working in these sectors are less likely to change careers after having children, making it easier to combine professional and family life.
On the other hand, sectors such as arts and humanities, natural sciences, engineering, and low-skilled ICT fields show a significantly higher rate of decline. These sectors often involve less stable employment in addition to low incomes in some of them.
“Monetary transfers usually only have temporary effects. However, research shows that some features are particularly important such as access to affordable childcare,” Hellstrand said, explaining the reasons government incentives and benefits have not had the intended effect on encouraging families to have children.
“It is also important to remember that in the Nordic countries, family policies were never primarily designed to increase fertility. Their original goals were to promote work-family reconciliation, gender equality and child well-being,” the University of Helsinki researcher said.
Julia Hellstrand also highlighted the crucial role of education in mitigating the potential long-term challenges caused by declining birth rates, including impacts on the old-age support ratio, reduced tax revenues, pressure on social support and pension systems, and a lower overall wage sum. The issues were identified in her research as well as in forecasts released earlier this year by the Bank of Finland.
By prioritising the production of highly skilled workers and maintaining current resources allocated to the education sector, even as the youth population declines, this approach could help to offset the economic impact of a smaller workforce and support the sustainability of the pension system by increasing the “per-child” investment. It could also reduce key barriers to childbearing by fostering new generations of parents with established careers and strong ties to the labor market.
“You need to support those people who want to have children, but you can’t force those who want to be child-free. Examples from other countries also show that governments telling their citizens to simply reproduce because they need more citizens does not work,” Kateryna Golovina noted.
The solution to encouraging higher birth rates among undecided people and those desiring children is not, she said, merely to provide them with financial incentives for childbearing. Instead, policy should focus on fostering a sense of security and optimism about the future, creating conditions for a future that feels stable and worth bringing a new generation to.
“You can show more that family life with children is okay and life is not ending when you have your child,” she emphasised, noting the need to challenge the typical portrayal of crying children in the media, which often internalizes feelings of pain and burden in adults’ subconscious minds rather than reflecting the possibility of living a normal life with children.
She also said that Finland provides a family-friendly environment with flexibility for parents, balancing work and family life, suggesting that this approach could be further improved by different policies.
Golovina also highlighted the potential role of expanding free mental health support beyond people in their twenties.
“Childbearing is resource-demanding. It is not only a financial investment but also an energetic and physical investment. When you have a mental health problem, you don’t feel like you have these resources,” she explained, pointing to postpartum depression as a common phenomenon among first-time parents, which can often lead them to postpone or even abandon the idea of having more children.
In 2024, 18 percent of all births were to mothers with a foreign mother tongue. As for current and potential impact of migration on the birth rate, both interviewees pointed to studies showing that migrants originating from countries with higher fertility rates tend to adapt to local demographic patterns after moving to the Nordics. This trend is especially evident among the higher-educated newcomers and second-generation migrants.
- Finland
- Low
- Birth rate
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
