‘Cherry on the cake’: Affluent families in Europe more inclined to have babies than the disadvantaged

If you are affluent, educated and well connected socially, you are more likely to have children than someone who is not. That is the finding of research conducted by European sociologists amid a sharp fall in fertility rates in the region and elsewhere.  

Research professor Anna Rotkirch, director of the Population Research Institute at the Family Federation of Finland, told The Straits Times a reason for this could be that individuals may delay their decision to have a child till they are more sure about the future. “For many, having children is kind of the cherry on the cake. You don’t have children to reduce uncertainty. On the contrary, you stay childless longer to reduce uncertainty and then, when you feel very certain, you have a child,” she said.