In more and more industrialised countries, the birth rate is below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. This means that fewer children are being born than people are dying and that the population is ageing. This demographic change is increasingly posing major challenges for society. At the same time, there is an increasing discrepancy between the desire to have children and the realisation of this desire. Despite a strong desire to have children, family planning is often postponed, especially among academics, and cannot always be realised in later years due to reduced fertility. In addition to a change in values and norms, the widespread postponement of child planning contributes to the fact that the number of families with three or more children has decreased significantly in Germany over the past few decades. This in turn is reflected in the birth rate. With currently 1.46, the German fertility rate is at its lowest level since 2013. The question arises how people who want more children can be supported by family policy measures.  A comparison of family policy measures in various European countries provides information on the framework conditions that can be conducive to this.

Read the entire analysis "Pathways to the third child - An international comparison of family policy measures" here as a PDF.