In one small municipality in Finland — Lestijärvi — birth rates were plunging. Only one child had been born per year before 2013, according to the BBC. Since then, local officials implemented a “baby bonus” in which each baby born is worth 10,000 euros, paid to the family over the course of 10 years. Financial incentives for having children are increasingly appearing as a response to low birth rate numbers in places like Finland, Estonia, Italy, Japan, and Australia. Other ways to bolster birth rates include increased access to childcare, longer and better paid maternity/paternity leave, plus deconstructing traditional gender dynamics by empowering women to have jobs while also having children.
