Childless or simply ageing?
Recently, there’s been a lot of handwringing about the supposedly childless society Denmark is turning into. Fertility rates are falling, and soon, Danes are so far below the replacement as to look like Italy. That’s the story, anyway. Yet, three years of falling total fertility rates (FTR) isn’t a great indicator of any supposed societal withdrawal from parenthood. In fact, we may largely be confronting how the middle-middle and lower-middle classes are now copying the fertility patterns of the upper middle classes - waiting until age 32 or older before having your first child.
However, if we look at the longer term, a very real change has occurred: Society has grown a lot older, and we’re having fewer kids overall. I discuss how it is this pattern, and not simply a short-term drop in fertility rates, that should be at the center of our discussion.