Finland's declining fertility
Abstract
Speculations and assumptions
In most of the highly-developed countries, a tendency towards a sharply declining birth rate was apparent during the whole of the 1960’s. In some countries, the birth rate rose to some extent at the end of the fifties, but began once again to fall by the mid-sixties. For a number of countries, such as France, Italy and Great Britain, it appears that the year 1964 represented a turning point in development.
In Finland, the birth rate has shown a clear decline since the end of the 1940’s, when the large groups of post-war children were born. Thus, during the period 1947—70 the number of live births fell from 28.0 to 13.9 per thousand of population (Figure 1). One would have expected a new »baby boom» when the large age-classes reached a fertile age at the beginning of the sixties. This did not happen, and instead it was possible to discern a continued declining tendency.
A great deal of speculation has been concerned with the reasons for this development, which is directly contrary to previous experience. Probably, these reasons are to be found in several jointly operating circumstances. If one leaves out of account those features of development which have gradually led to an increasingly lower fertility in the industrial countries (cf. Lento, p. 80-105, 1956), the following reasons remain as conceivably possessing more or less special relevance in regard to the development in Finland.
1. During the rapid process of urbanisation of the postwar years, the agrarian world of ideas, which had earlier set its stamp upon thought and action among the great majority of Finland’s people, yielded ground very quickly to new norms and opinions.
2. Examples and the way of life that characterise the relatively high standard of living in the southern, and comparatively greatly industrialised and urbanised parts of the country, are spreading to »developing areas» in the north and east.
3. The rapid development towards an educated community has led to greater equality between the sexes: the number of career women is rising.
