At the beginning of the year, the Pope attracted attention with his comments about Italy’s falling birth rate. He expressed concern that couples only have one child and then settle for four-legged additions to the family.
Maybe he had a point, despite the clumsy performance. On social media, the One and done trend is spreading, which is about why you settle for just having one child. One of those people is Frida Holmberg, who felt relieved after her birth:
– God, how nice it would be if this is finished now. It’s just me and my daughter and I don’t need to have more children, she says about the decision.
Although Frida is confident in her choice to have only one child, she sometimes encounters a critical environment.
– When I had my first daughter, it was almost a stress from those around me to plan the next child. But I never felt like I wanted another one.
– I have my daughter full-time myself. So there are many who think it is reasonable that I do not have more children, right now. But there are many who say that I will want more children once I meet someone.
Sweden stands out
The trend is clearly visible in North America and Europe, where Portugal is one of the clearest examples. There, 59 percent of everyone with children has only one, and in Europe the same figure is 49 percent. Something that may depend on the countries’ social structure, says Gunnar Andersson, professor of demography at Stockholm University.
– There is so much childcare that does not work in those communities, so they choose to stop after one child.
Which may explain why Sweden does not follow the trend. Swedes both want and have two to three children on average, only 14 percent have one child. Here, couples instead choose not to have children at all.
– If it continues for a long time, there will be very skewed age structures. It will be the younger population that has to provide for the elderly and then there will be economic problems at the societal level.