Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.
On a clear but chilly autumn day, Poa Pohjola and her partner Wilhelm Blomberg are relaxing in their Helsinki apartment while their baby naps outside on the balcony, in traditional Finnish style.
"They sleep very well outside, in colder degrees, I think," Pohjola said with a laugh. "Or, that's how I grew up thinking."
Pohjola is 38 and Blomberg is 35. They've been together for about three years, and they started talking about having a baby early on - even though Pohjola had once thought she might never have kids.
"I think I was denying that for myself because it seemed [like] something that would be impossible to have," she said.
In her 20s, Pohjola says she struggled to figure out what she wanted from life. By the time she met Blomberg, she knew the window of opportunity to become pregnant was closing because of her age.
But one night, the couple talked about their wishes for their future, and she told Blomberg she thought she wanted a baby. He agreed.
Blomberg says they both felt ready to be parents.
"One, in a way, convincing argument was that both of us have had time to, like, roam around and do what we want in life," he explained.
Researchers say Finnish people are increasingly delaying having children, or not having them at all. The nation's "total fertility rate" — a technical term used by demographers — has fallen to historic lows in recent years. Although there have been some signs of a possible rebound in recent months, the number remains less than 1.3 children per woman — well below the replacement level of 2.1 needed to maintain a steady population.
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That's despite the Nordic region's reputation for providing paid time off for both mothers and fathers, along with childcare and other support. As families around the world are having fewer children, even Europe is seeing a major drop in birth rates despite those generous, publicly funded benefits.
Among other things, that means less demand for Finland's iconic baby boxes.
"It has loads of winter clothes, loads of summer clothes, loads of baby care items, something for moms," said Eeva Patomeri, a spokesperson for Kela, Finland's taxpayer-funded social insurance agency.
They've been handing out the boxes since the 1930s and there's a new edition of the box each year. But many new parents were still getting last year's box well into 2025 because Kela still had so many left over from 2024.
"Sometimes the box, we start delivering it in spring, and now it was August, and that's because of low birth rates," Patomeri said, adding more parents are choosing cash payments in lieu of the box, too.
Benefits for Finnish parents go far beyond free baby clothes and blankets. Both mothers and fathers receive government-subsidized parental leave through Kela, low-cost childcare and national healthcare.
Kela's research manager, Anneli Miettinen, says historically, leaders of the Nordic countries: Finland, along with Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, thought these policies were helping to support relatively stable birth rates.
"So we cannot really any longer say that it's our good family policies that explain good fertility in the Nordics," she said.
Births have fallen across the region, with Finland's falling to the lowest rate among the five nations — down by a third since 2010.
"What is puzzling researchers, is how this could be true, because all of these countries are relatively good in providing support to families," Miettinen said, "but there aren't really very good explanations for the very low fertility rates at present."
Immigration has offset some of the decline, but officials in Finland, like many other countries facing this global trend, are still worried about an aging population, a shrinking workforce and pressure on the pension system.
Anna Rotkirch, with the nonprofit Family Federation of Finland authored a report last year commissioned by the Finnish government, which outlined possible causes and policy solutions. Rotkirch says her research suggests a gap between what young people say they want from life and the families they ultimately form.
"We go to schools; you talk to 17-year-olds, and we are like, 'What would be your ideal family? If you want a family at all, what would be your ideal life?'" she explained.
"You get these, surprisingly, in a way, normative perceptions," she added. "You know, 'I want a small house with a dog and a garden and a spouse and three children.'"
"And it really breaks my heart, because I'm like, that's not going to happen. If the world goes on like it's now, you know, half of you, this is just not going to happen," she said.
Disconnected and financially uncertain amid family planning
Rotkirch says there appear to be many possible reasons for this decline. Many young people are focusing on their education and careers. Those who have children are having them later. Rotkirch says young people also are having a harder time forming relationships, and some researchers think technology is partly to blame.
"Screens are away from actual physical, embodied interactions, and it's in those interactions that babies get made and also people fall in love," she explained. "The physical part of our humanity is obviously at stake."
Milla Tuokkola, a 34-year-old television writer in Helsinki, says she's tried dating online. But too often, she says, she's been harassed and subjected to degrading language.
"They're just very porn-brained…objectifying," she said of the men she's meeting online and on dating apps. "I feel like they're being radicalized online when they're young."
Tuokkola is divorced. Sometimes, she thinks she'd like to have a child, but she's had trouble meeting the right partner.
"They don't seem a safe, reliable option to have a child with," she said.
Some young adults say when they think about having children, they also worry about the larger state of the world, whether climate change or the economy.
Anselmi Auramo, 28, is a student in Helsinki. He's engaged to be married, and plans to become a father one day, but says he's not sure when he'll be financially ready. He believes financial concerns cause many young people to think twice about having children.
"Whether it's [the] American dream or Finnish dream or whatever it is, it seems so distant, and you expect to have that in order to have the family," he said.
Answering a global question
Finland's struggle to boost family size matches what many other countries are experiencing. From authoritarian regimes like China and Russia to progressive nations like Canada and Finland, governments have tried a range of policies designed to encourage higher birth rates.
But experts say even the most expensive attempts at policy solutions have shown limited or no success.
Miettinen, with Kela, says there's not one, single reason why young people are having fewer children, and there won't be a single solution to reversing the trend, either.
"These types of policies may not be enough any longer, but we need to invent something else to support young adults," she said.
Rotkirch, with the Family Federation, says ultimately, these decisions are in the hands of younger generations.
"But what we can do as the elderly generations and what the policy makers can do is really prioritize this," Rotkirch said. "Prioritize listening to young people - their wishes for family formation - and support them."
For Poa Pohjola and Wilhelm Blomberg, the couple with the new baby, there are fears about the future. Pohjola remembers Finland's financial crisis in the early 1990s, and worries about economic stability.
Blomberg says he thinks about climate change and rising authoritarianism around the world.
"We are in such turbulent times, and it's hard to, like, have a sense that you can control things," he said. "And one thing you can control is whether you're having a baby or not, as it's so hard to predict what the future will bring."
Still, they're talking about having another child; Blomberg has a brother he's very close to, and he'd like to give their son a sibling, too.
Pohjola is slightly more hesitant.
"When I start overthinking it, I'm like, 'Okay, we would need to have this child quite soonish, and then we have a toddler and a baby," she said. "And okay, we won't be sleeping, so it's gonna be a lot of work."
But, now that she's had one baby, she said, she's inclined to have another.
NPR's Brian Mann contributed to this story.
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