COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — Sofie Mikkelsen lives in Copenhagen with her partner. Despite being in a committed relationship, the couple is unsure if they want to become parents.
Mikkelsen, 28, pointed to studies showing that overall happiness decreases when a household gets a new child. And Danes appeared to fare even worse on this front than their Nordic neighbors, Mikkelsen said, citing one news story from Danish media outlet Zetland.
“When having a child, you have a big job and responsibility at home — but your paid work schedule does not change,” Mikkelsen said in a phone interview. “Our jobs aren’t flexible to match different life phases.”
“Personally, I just got going with my career and have so many interests,” she added. “My thought is that some of that drive disappears when becoming a parent, simply because there is not enough energy.”
Denmark’s declining fertility has been at the center of national debates this year, as figures from the national statistics agency show how the average birth rate per woman is currently just under 1.5.
That number has fallen for years, according to Danmarks Statistik, from almost 1.9 kids per woman in 2008. At the same time, the average age of first-time mothers and fathers have gone up to around 30 years.
The situation has Danish officials worried. During her New Year’s speech, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized that every family should have the opportunity to have multiple kids. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of coalition party The Moderates, likewise said in March that “we need more children.”
Rasmussen suggested introducing a fertility treatment guarantee to the public health care system. In an effort to help prospective parents, the Danish government has already upped the number of state-supported in vitro fertilization attempts from three to six. But while fertility initiatives like these have been well-received in Denmark, they’ve also spurred public conservations about whether many young Danes even want children. Already balancing career, high rents and social life, Mikkelsen said she and many of her friends are not necessarily ready to “give up what they have.”
According to a recent statement from the Ministry of Finance, lower fertility could lead to a loss in workforce, which in turn would negatively affect GDP.
Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen, a leading professor of epidemiology and biodemography at University of Southern Denmark, agrees with this assessment.
It takes a little more than two children per woman to maintain the population. Low birth rates will lead to a lack of hands at the labor market and in the welfare sector, he said.
“We look into a future, where a large group of elderly citizens need benefits from the care sector,” Lindahl-Jacobsen said. “We might not have resources to provide that for all, if the workforce shrinks too much.”
There is a lot more to learn about why people choose to postpone children or simply never have them. But while there are many socio-demographic factors at play, all lead to the same basic problem: more and more, Danes are postponing getting pregnant.
“Maybe people wait, because of career concerns, trouble finding the right partner or insecurity about the general state of the world,” Lindahl-Jacobsen said. Still, he noted, “it makes it difficult, because women’s fertility tops at 24 years.”
Denmark is far from the only developed country struggling with declining birth rates. In Europe, Italy and Spain had some of the lowest fertility rates in 2022, with only around 1.2 births per woman, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.
Danish columnist Thomas Balslev has written about the hardships and the daily stress of becoming a father for the Danish culture magazine Heartbeats.
Many of his male friends question whether they want children, he said. To some, the experience sounds “like a bummer.” Also, it’s “a sign of the times to break with expectations and create your own unique life journey,” Baslev said, including by delaying parenthood or avoiding it altogether.
As part of the solution, Balslev tries to talk up parenthood. Parenthood is fantastic, while the “toughest periods only last a couple of years” he said.
Still, with both men and women struggling to have children, Balslev pointed out that fertility in Denmark is generally bad. One in eight children here are born via fertility treatment, and both men and women’s fertility are generally challenged. Just in 2024, the number of women seeking to have their egg reserves counted has shot up drastically. Currently, there is a three-year-long waiting list for the procedure.
In the meantime, many young Danes will likely continue forgoing parenthood. If Danish politicians really want to increase the number of children, Mikkelsen thinks they should focus on improving factors like work-life balance for future parents.
Right now, she argued, politicians tell people to have more children while also emphasizing how every adult needs to work more. ”That is a very hardcore paradox to live with,” she said. “How can you do both things at once?”
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