Explaining very low fertility in postindustrial societies:
an unconventional approach

Very low fertility rates have come to characterize a number of postindustrial societies from Europe to East Asia, portending a range of problems for the 21st century from a shortage of prime-age workers to an increasing government burden to support the expanding ranks of the elderly. Such concerns are less pronounced in countries where fertility has remained close to replacement level, such as the US, Sweden, Norway, France and a few other West European societies. This poses the question: why has the fertility decline been so steep in some postindustrial countries and only moderate in others?

The search for answers poses a significant theoretical challenge as well as an important methodological opportunity to test how innovative mixed-method and qualitative approaches can be employed to better unravel the complex social processes underlying individuals’ family formation decisions across varied cultural contexts. After conducting a macro analysis of family- and gender-role attitudes and their impact on fertility in about 20 OECD countries, we will study individual intentions to have a second or third child. Linked to that, the qualitative portion of the project will deepen our understanding of the reasoning behind young women’s and men’s family- and gender-role attitudes and responses to economic and institutional circumstances in three very low-fertility countries (Spain, Japan and South Korea) and two moderate-fertility societies (Sweden and the US). 80 young women and men, living in two big cities have been interviewed in each participating countries, reflecting upon issues related to family and work, norms and attitudes. These unique, rich data allow us to shed more light on how and why norms, economic considerations and institutional contexts interact in influencing family formation among young people in different societies.

More information on the international project

Acknowledgement:

We are grateful for financial support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (grant no. P11-1049:1 to Livia Olah) regarding the Swedish part of the project. In addition, we wish to express our gratitude to the eighty young women and men in Stockholm and Gothenburg who have participated in the qualitative part of the project for Sweden.

Contact
Livia Olah, Principal investigator
Associate professor, Ph.D.

Stockholm University Demography Unit
Dept. of Sociology
Stockholm University,
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

livia.olah@sociology.su.se
+46 (0)8 16 28 76