Are people having fewer children because they worry about climate change? Researchers at the Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS) have found that many Swedes both worry about the environmental impacts of having children and are concerned about how the environmental conditions will influence children’s lives in the future. But they find no clear connection between people's environmental concerns and their actual decisions to have children.

For decades, scholars have debated the environmental consequences of population size and childbearing, without reaching an agreement. But what does the general public believe? And does this influence their decisions to have children?

- In the media, many articles have been written about people who are so worried about climate change that they are choosing not to have children. However, whether this is common or not has not been properly investigated. So we decided to dig into this question more deeply, says Malcolm

Fairbrother, professor in sociology.

Two representative Swedish public opinion surveys, with 8027 and 683 respondents, showed that many people perceive a link between childbearing and environmental problems. For example, a clear majority of respondents thought that the Earth is approaching its limit of people it can support, and that environmental considerations should influence people’s decisions to have children – based on considerations regarding both the quality of life of children in the future and the potential environmental impact of more children being born. However, the findings of the study suggest that environmental concerns are not clearly connected with intentions to have children or with the current number of children.

- In general, Swedes appear to agree with arguments for limiting childbearing for environmental reasons. However, we do not clearly find that this has much effect on the personal choice of having a child, says Martin Kolk, associate professor in demography.

The researchers note that even if it is not clear that the environment influences personal choices of the majority of Swedes, the widespread views regarding environmental impact of childbearing needs to be studied further.

- Environmental concerns might change the societal norms and narratives regarding childbearing, thereby potentially influencing future fertility trends and psychological wellbeing of parents. We need to better understand worries that environmentally concerned people may have when thinking about having children, says Kirsti Jylhä, researcher in psychology.

Kirsti Jylhä, Martin Kolk, and Malcolm Fairbrother’s article, “Attitudes towards childbearing, population, and the environment: Prevalence, correlates, and connections with fertility outcomes in Sweden,” was recently published in the academic journal Population and Environment.

Contact:

Kirsti Jylhä (questions about psychology), kirsti.jylha@iffs.se

Martin Kolk (questions about demography), martin.kolk@iffs.se