Research chronicle

Since 2010, fertility levels have declined unexpectedly in all Nordic countries, with record lows being reached in recent years. The reasons for these declines are unclear, except that fewer people are becoming parents. The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in housing tenure played a role in the declined entry into parenthood. We expected that changes in housing tenure, particularly a decline in homeownership related to housing affordability challenges among young adults, may have contributed to this decline. Using harmonized Nordic individual-level register data, we assessed to what extent changes in housing tenure, changes in fertility behavior within tenure groups, or both, contributed to the decline. Discrete-time event history models and multivariate decomposition were applied. According to our results, homeownership among young adults declined in the 2010s in Denmark and Finland – but not in Sweden or Norway. The decline in first births was only partially attributable to compositional change in housing tenure along with other socioeconomic factors in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Entry into parenthood declined among women, regardless of their tenure status, in all four countries during the 2010s, suggesting the importance of behavioral changes. However, the decline was more pronounced among renters than homeowners.

Background: Core-kinless older adults, i.e., those lacking a partner and children, represent a potentially vulnerable group. However, the whole population-level research devoted to this group remains scarce. Objectives: This study estimates the prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics, and geographic distribution of core-kinless adults in Finland, with attention to variation across ethnolinguistic groups of Finnish, Swedish, and other language speakers. Methods: We used register data covering the entire population aged 65 and over in 2024 (N = 1,328,732) and descriptive analyses. Core-kinlessness was defined as the absence of both a registered co-residing partner and any living children registered in Finland. Results: In total, 11.6% of older adults in Finland were core-kinless. Prevalence was 11.3% among Finnish-speaking, 10.3% among Swedish-speaking, and 30.5% among other language-speaking individuals. Migration background in general, being male among Finnish-speaking as well as being female, being older and having lower education among other language-speaking individuals are the characteristics of this group. The positive associations between municipal core-kinlessness and i) demographic dependency ratio, ii) the mortality rate among older adults and iii) the rate of home care clients confirm that municipalities where these older adults are concentrated also face greater demographic and service pressures. Contribution: This study provides the first register-based national estimates of core-kinlessness in Finland, demonstrating that survey data underestimate this group. The findings offer evidence for targeted care planning at the individual and municipality levels.

Abstract The Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland were among the first countries to acknowledge same‐sex couples’ partnership and parenthood rights in their legislation. We explore trends over time in the share of female same‐sex and different‐sex couples that have children following their legal union and variation by socioeconomic status. Using harmonized register data, we assess couples’ likelihood of having a child over time, with a focus on education and income. We find strong increases in female couples’ likelihood of having a child, resulting in a sharply increasing prevalence, approaching near parity with different‐sex couples in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway around 2010. Finland diverges from the other countries in terms of its later and less steep increase. Higher education is associated with a higher likelihood of having a child, whereas we find a less clear gradient by income level. The results suggest that legal changes, together with more supportive wider cultural and normative societal environments, have made same‐sex parenthood more achievable in the Nordic countries. These changes are concurrent with the observed increase in parenthood. Following this increase, female couples today are nearly as likely as different‐sex couples to have children within a legal union.

Highlights Cohort fertility rates are decomposed by couples’ educational pairing using Finnish register data. Most births occur in educationally homogamous and hypogamous unions. Most births occur in unions in which at least one partner has tertiary education.

BACKGROUNDMortality is known to be higher in winter than in summer, with excess winter deaths ranging between 5% and 30% in Europe.A recent study conducted in the USA sought to quantify the excess winter mortality in terms of life expectancy reduction, by calculating the difference between summer and winter life expectancy. OBJECTIVESWe aimed to calculate Winter Life Expectancy Reduction (WLER) in Europe, illustrate the extent to which this indicator depends on definitions of summer and winter, introduce a novel indicator of WLER based on a statistical model accounting for country-specific seasonal cycles, and compare men and women in terms of WLER. METHODSWLER indicators were calculated from weekly mortality data in 24 European countries over the period 2000-2019. RESULTSOn average, WLER was a few months higher in Europe than in the USA, while depending heavily on country and sex, as well as the chosen indicator.Our model-based indicator measured the highest WLER values, ranging from 11 months (Finnish men) to 36 months (Portuguese women), with a European average of 18 months for men and 22 months for women.In most countries, WLER was higher for women than for men, regardless of the indicator used.

Research on childlessness by educational attainment typically focuses on lifetime childlessness at age 40 or 45, with less known about younger ages. This study examines trends in childlessness by age and education for men and women in Finland from 1987 to 2022, using total population register data. We focus on childlessness at ages 30, 35, 40, and 45. The results show that childlessness has increased at most ages, with acceleration in the past decade. At ages 40 and 45, the association between education and childlessness is negative for men-men with lower education are more often childless-while among women, the association has reversed from positive to negative in recent years. At age 30, childlessness is higher among the highly educated, reflecting later entry into parenthood. At age 35, childlessness has risen across all groups, notably including tertiary-educated men and women. These trends suggest that the increase in lifetime childlessness in Finland is likely to continue and become more widespread.

Men’s childlessness is increasing in many high-income countries. In Finland, 29 per cent of all men aged 45 were childless in 2022. The cause of these high levels of childlessness is unclear. In this paper, we use rich Finnish population register data to examine whether sex imbalances in regional partner markets are a potential driver of men’s childlessness. Partner markets are imbalanced in a given region if there is a surplus of men relative to women or vice versa. The data generally show an increasingly imbalanced partner market situation for men over time but with considerable regional heterogeneity. Individual-level regression results for men born in 1968–75 (N = 194,080) indicate an increased probability of childlessness at age 45 after extended exposure to imbalanced partner markets over the life course. This association is particularly strong for low-income men. These findings are robust across indicators and specifications. Overall, regional context seems to play a crucial role in the risk of childlessness.