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<title> The decreasing fertility rate in Sweden </title>
During the last ten years the fertility rate has decreased in Sweden. The fertility rate is a measure of the average number of children that a woman gives birth to during her lifetime. This rate fluctuates from year to year. A fertility rate of 2.1 is necessary to replace the present population in a country (Fellman, 1995:97). It is also crucial that every woman give birth to a girl since there is a tendency towards boys being the most frequent gender to be born (Holmén 
1994:84). This is an analytical essay which will analyse the causes of the trend of the decreasing fertility rate in Sweden. Causes which will be dealt with are changing evaluations, contraceptives, unemployment and the fact that there are more students today than before. However, firstly I will start to support the fact that there is a trend towards a decreasing fertility rate.

Although the fertility rate has gone up and down during the twentieth century it has never been as low as it is today. In the beginning of the 1900s every woman gave birth to 4.0 children. Since then the highest fertility rate has been 2.7 in 1945. During the last twenty years there has been a great increase, from about 1.7 in 1980 to 2.1 in 1990, just to fall again to the lowest figures ever which is the figures of today and those are 1.5. (Statistiska centralbyrån) What is more is that during the first five months of this year the same low fertility rate is measured and why is this?

There is another trend in society today which make heavy demands on the female gender. The ideal of women are that they should have a slim and well trained figure with no extra weight. This ideal meets us wherever we go for instance in the books, films and commercials. Is it possible that women don't have babies because they are watching their figure? Well, perhaps to some extent but it is probably not the most decisive reason.

Something more likely would be that contraceptives are easier to get hold of today. Sexual education in schools make students better aware of them and if you are a teenager contraceptives are even subsidised. Furthermore they are better and safer today compared with earlier ones. Still, better contraceptives cannot be a main reason for the decreasing fertility rate. 

Could this trend have something to do with the economical situation that Sweden has been in for a couple of years? In the latter part of the 1990s 550.000 jobs disappeared with the result that young people, and especially women, had difficulties in establishing themselves on the labour market (Statistiska centralbyrån). Furthermore, if they got a job it was often temporary and that won't give the economical security that you need when you want to have children. Accordingly, young people chose to study to better live up to the keen competition. Consequently, the amount of students have increased during the last couple of years and students have very low fertility. This could be a good explanation of the decreasing fertility rate. Yet, another reason as well could be changed evaluations.

I think that young people's evaluations has changed. When my parents had me for about 25 years ago everything was different. People got married and had children. It was the natural thing to do since it was easier to get a job and a loan to build yourself a nice little house so, naturally you start a family as well. This is not how it is anymore. Today young people have different evaluations. It isn't as important to have a family as it is to develop yourself and to fulfil you dreams, before you marry and settle down. But when you do feel that you want to have children it is common that you would like to have reached a certain level of wealth. People are more materialistic today and they want to get a well-paid job as well as a house and car before they start to make babies. You want to satisfy the basic needs to be sure that your baby will get absolutely the best that life can offer. 

For the moment Sweden can expect a couple of prosperous years which means that more children can be born and brought up which could mean the end of the trend. However, this is not likely since people's evaluations have changed so much since the 1970s and late 1980s, that this pattern will probably remain for at least a couple of years. 

References

Fellman, J., Getis, A., Gethis, J. 1997. Human geography. United States of America: Wm. Brown Communications.

Holmén, H., Rehn, J., Soleröd, H., Överjordet, A.H. 1994. Geogarfi. Stockholm: Natur och kultur.

Statistiska centralbyrån, http://www.scb.se
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