Published on June 28, 2024 at 8:24 p.m. / Modified on June 29, 2024 at 10:03 a.m.
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The Swiss say they want to start a family, but the Swiss birth rate remains historically low: 1.3 children per woman.
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The causes are numerous, among these: too poor a family policy, raises Pro Familia.
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A popular initiative for parental leave could emerge.
We have observed for decades in Switzerland that women are having fewer children than they wanted when they were young. Even today, starting a family is part of the life plan of the vast majority of young people. A quarter of them want to have three or more children, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FOPH). Overall, young women and young men hope on average to have 2.2 children. This figure corresponds to the birth rate that would be necessary to maintain the population at its current level in the long term. But for decades, the real rate has been lower: it now stands at the historically low figure of 1.3 children per woman.
«“There is an urgent need to act,” warns Philippe Gnaegi, director of Pro Familia. “Our society is no longer renewing itself, with all the consequences that demographic ageing entails in social and economic terms.” The causes of the decline in fertility are multiple: financial aspects, international environment, fear of the future, lack of framework conditions to facilitate the “work-family” reconciliation. But it is obvious to Pro Familia that an efficient family policy would have an impact on the fertility rate. By providing more childcare facilities at more affordable prices and by introducing parental leave. “Companies also have a central role to play, by offering parents more flexibility in reconciling their professional and family lives. But to envisage a change in the dynamic, we must above all revalue the place of the family, parents and children in society,” Philippe Gnaegi points out.
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