‘Rethink what we expect from parents’: Norway’s grapple with falling birthrate

Parents in Norway are entitled to 12 months of shared paid leave for the birth of their child, and an additional year each afterwards. Photograph: Jackietraveller Oslo/Alamy

Norway’s generous parental leave, heavily subsidised childcare and high living standards have earned it a reputation as one of the best places in the world to have children. And yet fewer than ever are being born in the Nordic country.

Although falling birthrates are a global trend, such is the concern in Oslo the government has commissioned a birthrate committee to investigate the causes and possible consequences and devise strategies to reverse the population’s current trajectory.