Why Is Natality in Sweden Low?

Why is natality in Sweden low?

Europe's 733 million people make up 11% of the world's population.

Human population is the number of people living in a particular area. Government Accounts population of their country by means of a census. Later development of the population can be estimated by studying the current situation and population growth. The rapid population growth is typical for many countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. On the other hand, in Europe and North America, population density is low or even declining. Population structure (number of people of all age groups) between these two groups is also different. In Europe, there are fewer babies, but, given that the death of children and young people is small, all age groups are equally represented. Looking at the entire population, there are more older people meaning that the birth rate is very low.

I took Sweden as an example for a European country..
In 2004 there were estimated around 9 million people in Sweden. Sweden has 4 ethnic groups; Indigenous Swedes, ethnic Finns, ethnic Lapps.

Sweden has one of the world's highest life expectancies and one of the lowest birth rates. However, Sweden is currently experiencing a rise in period fertility that reflects a change in the time pattern of cohort fertility. Ultimate cohort fertility may eventually also rise as a result of this change.

There are lots of immigrants in Sweden; Finns, Bosnians, Iranians, Norwegians, Danes, Hungarians, Iraqis, and Turks. More than 1 million people, one-eighth of the population, are either foreign born or the children of immigrants. Immigrants are those who affect the natality growth.

58 % of young women in Sweden were cohabiting at the birth of their first child. The median age at first birth for women in Sweden is 28.

A study by Statistics Sweden finds that foreign-born women had a fertility rate of 2.21 children per woman, while Swedish-born women reproduced at a rate of 1.82 children per woman. Sweden’s overall fertility rate in 2007 was 1.88 children per woman, below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required to replace the population. Since 1980, the percentage of births registered in Sweden to mothers born outside the country has nearly doubled from 12 percent to 22 percent. Women from most of the groupings were found to have a greater likelihood of giving birth to a third or fourth child compared to women born in Sweden.

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Graph 1.
This graph shows the population in Sweden from 1970-1996. We can see that the population is constantly growing, although not with the same speed every year. From 1984-1996 the population grew faster than other years, from around 8,300 to 8,800 million.
Sweden is blessed with great population statistics for the last 250 years. It is easy to follow the numbers year by year.

Since the Swedish abortion laws were liberalized in the 1970s, the annual number of abortions has been quite steady at around 33 000. Every fourth pregnancy is terminated through an abortion.

Advances in medicine after 1850, combined with improved sanitation and sewage systems, decreased the death rate. Attitudes toward population increase had changed by 1930, and birth rates declined, while average life expectancy improved. Life was still difficult for many people, with unsanitary and crowded housing and bad hygienic conditions for the poor. Contrasts between the wealthy and the poor were reflected in birth and death rates and life expectancy. Infant mortality rates ranged from forty-nine per thousand births in low-income families to only fourteen per thousand in high-income families. Sweden introduced some forms of government social security programs between 1930 and 1940 including national health insurance, employer medical insurance, housing allowances, nursery schools, children's health services, free school meals, and information on nutrition and health. The population of Sweden grew to 6.4 million by 1940.

Sweden's population grew at a rate of 0.01 percent between 1980 and 1985, and since 1985 it has actually declined. Life expectancy in Sweden is one of the highest in the world (75.8 years average), and infant mortality (seven per thousand) is also among the lowest.

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Graph 2.

The graph shows the birth rate (blue) and death rate in Sweden, for the period of 1735 to 2000. The graph indicates strong population growth for the period of 1800 to 1970, and a beginning population decline from the 1980s.

Concern for the slow growth of Sweden's population is reflected in a national survey in 1982. The results of this survey show that Swedish women have small families for the following reasons:

▪ More women are attending school longer and because of that they are postponing childbirth ▪ Highly educated women have fewer children ▪ A larger percentage of women are in the labor force and they have higher status jobs ▪ More unmarried couples are living together and are less likely to have children than married couples ▪ The methods of contraception are constantly used

Highly educated women have fewer children because their career and education is very important for them. They are trying to be more and more successful by reaching higher and higher in their career. Because they are so educated, they marry later than less educated women. Also, there are many divorces. Usually they have one child and then they don’t agree anymore, and can’t live together, which leads to a divorce. Women, who are really successful, postpone the childbirth because of their job. The Most of women think that one child is enough for them because they barely have time for one, let alone two or more. Having a child is a huge responsibility and they are aware of it. If they find I partner with whom they agree and can spend a long time together, than they will agree on having a child, otherwise their career is on their first place.

CONCLUSION

Sweden's population increased from 6.4 million to 8.3 million between 1940 and 1985. The trends begun during the earlier part of the twentieth century led to decreasing growth rates, making immigration responsible for a significant proportion of the population increase from 1940 to 1985. Birth rates continued to decline, with the average woman bearing only 2.22 children by 1955 and only 1.55 by 1985. Sweden will reach zero population growth if this average total fertility rate continues, and the number of Swedes may actually decline. Mainly reason for causing a decrease in natality is education and status. more educated a woman is, the fewer children she has. They simply don’t want many children and one is enough for them because they have a job and they don’t have much time for more children. Also, divorces are problem and abortions. The experience of Sweden and other industrialized countries has prompted some observers to conclude that if a country industrializes, its population growth rate will also decline.

RESOURCES: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12316310 http://www.prb.org/Articles/2009/fallingbirthrates.aspx http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0vedska http://www.historycentral.com/nationbynation/Sweden/Population.html http://scholar.google.hr/scholar?q=natality+in+european+countries&hl=hr&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart http://books.google.hr/books?id=alFp7aKYL_UC&pg=PA356&lpg=PA356&dq=natality+in+european+countries&source=bl&ots=9r0Xp6Rhba&sig=09bQrn6TaRdKKjG5tnKJiZEIV0E&hl=hr&ei=83aLTdvEBM_Gswaah7GRCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=natality%20in%20european%20countries&f=false http://academics.smcvt.edu/geography/sweden.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_and_population_of_European_countries http://www.zenkerse/Surprise/fertility.shtml http://www.sisterswade.com/why-do-northern-european-countries-have-small-populations-for-their-land-size.html OXFORD enciklopedija za mlade 8 ; BEGEN d.o.o.