Stan, not so trivial. In the 1970s, Sweden’s birth rate fell to 1.6x. By the 1980s it had risen to 2.1x, despite (?) an unusually high level of female participation in the workforce. This compared to a continuing decline in countries such as Italy, Germany and Hungary, where the birth rate fell to 1.3-1.5. Daycare works. This recovery went back into reverse in the 1990s when tough times forced cutbacks in parental benefits, and a reduction in public sector employment (traditionally a major source of female employment). You can find more on this here.

On the “unravelling” of the Swedish family, while it’s true that more than half Swedish children are born outside marriage, this is a figure that ignores the fact that to most Swedes cohabitation is regarded as de facto marriage. Some 80 percent of Swedish children under the age of 18 live with both parents…