In the last ten years, the number of babies being born has gone down in wealthy countries. But did people also start wanting fewer children? A recent study from the University of Helsinki checked this and found that across different groups of people born at different times, the ideal number of kids they want to have has also gone down. This was especially true for those born between 1985 and 1994.

Researchers looked at surveys done between 2007 and 2018 by a group called Väestöliitto, which is like a family association in Finland. They talked to men and women aged 20 to 45 from five groups born in different years: 1970–1974, 1975–1979, 1980–1984, 1985–1989, and 1990–1994. The participants said how many kids they’d ideally like to have. The researchers then compared these numbers for people of the same age but from different time periods (like comparing 30-year-olds from the 1970s to 30-year-olds from more recent years). A number of interesting patterns emerged.

Wanting fewer children

“The primary finding was that people from more recent birth cohorts had a lower ideal number of children compared to people from earlier cohorts,” the researchers explain.

The reason for wanting fewer children was because more people who were born after 1985 preferred not to have any children at all. For example, among men aged 25 who were born between 1985 and 1989, and those born between 1990 and 1994, 25% and 26% respectively said they don’t want any kids.

This is in contrast to only 4% and 5% of men aged 25 who were born between 1975 and 1979, and 1980 and 1984. Similar trends were seen among women: 22% and 21% of women from the later groups didn’t want kids, while only 2% and 9% of those born in 1975–1979 and 1980–1984 felt the same way.

The researchers also looked into whether the reason for wanting fewer children might have to do with the financial uncertainty caused by the economic crisis in 2008.

“Although some associations were found between education, income, and employment status and the ideal number of children, the differences in the ideal number of children across birth cohorts remained highly significant,” the authors explain.

Cultural change

This suggests that the reason people want fewer children is probably because of bigger cultural changes, not just the temporary impact of the 2008 economic crisis.

In general, the study shows that how people think about having kids and families has changed in Finland. Even though they didn’t look at it directly, the fact that more people want to have no kids might be because of larger changes in society. And this might be one reason why fewer babies are being born in Finland.

“Modern life has changed traditional life paths in which having children has been a given. Freedom of choice can increase conscious decisions of childlessness but also uncertainty about parenthood,” the authors conclude.