Low birth rates: a bad thing?
Numerous countries in Europe have sinking birthrates. In Sweden, for example, where the average was 1.43 children per woman in 2024, it is lower than ever. The government has set up a public inquiry to look into the causes. Commentators also are debating the reasons and fundamental questions about the demographic situation.
Children mean sacrifice and risk
Göteborgs-Posten explains the changes that family life can bring:
“Parenthood is the absolute opposite of total individualism. It means saying goodbye to ourselves and our needs in order to take care of someone else. As parents we stop being the centre of attention, we relinquish choices in a time when they exist in excess. In so doing, we take on a responsibility that requires constant sacrifice, and with no guarantee that this will be rewarded with meaning or that the meaning will last. We also expose ourselves to the risk of the worst kind of grief: the sickness, injury or death of our children.”
This is a sociopolitical issue
Sweden's Minister for Health and Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed should know why people are not having children, admonishes Aftonbladet:
“The housing allowance supplement for single parents was cut at the beginning of July. And there is a benefit cap in the pipeline that would hit young mothers particularly hard. ... None of this makes any sense if the government wants to increase the birth rate. Perhaps Forssmed has no idea that women are put at a financial and career disadvantage by having children. Or that their health is at its worst when their children are small. Perhaps he doesn't care. But the population crisis cannot be shouldered by young women. Especially if the government has made a point of punishing them.”
The pessimists were wrong
Lithuania has had one of the EU's lowest birthrates for years, but there are glimmers of hope, enthuses Žygimantas Mauricas, chief economist at Luminor Lietuva bank, in Kauno diena:
“A study carried out by Vilnius University in 2017 predicted that by 2022, the population of Lithuania would be just 2.69 million. The UN was even more pessimistic, with an estimate of 2.59 in 2025. ... And what are the figures today? Not 2.59 but 2.89 million people! Why were the predictions so off? Because they failed to take account of changes in migration. ... The key thing here is not an increase in foreigners moving here but in Lithuanians returning home. These people are bringing knowledge, professional experience, capital and above all, the desire to live in Lithuania and build something here.”