Regional social cohesion and fertility rate: Municipality-level analysis in Finland

Abstract

<p>Declining fertility rates pose a challenge for population structures and socioeconomic sustainability in<br>developed countries. While many studies find that received social support matters for childbearing on the<br>individual level, and regional variation in fertility can be considerable, few studies have investigated how<br>regional social factors relate to fertility rates. In the current study, we used data from 299 municipalities in<br>Finland to examine how different measures of social cohesion were associated with fertility rates at the<br>regional level. Data for social indicators were derived from a large national survey (n=100,750), fertility<br>data were derived from population registries. We applied spatial autoregressive error models to account<br>for spatial autocorrelation between neighboring municipalities. Regions with higher social support and<br>more frequent social contacts had higher fertility rates, whereas higher social trust and civic engagement<br>were associated with lower fertility rates. These associations were stronger for fertility rates among age<br>groups 20-34. The results suggest that regional social cohesion may be relevant for people’s decisions of<br>having children.<br></p>