Birth rate|For some, a pet is a better companion than a child
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In Finland, more dogs have been registered than babies born in the last four years.
Some researchers speculate that having a pet can replace having children.
Pets’ status and emotional ties to pets are changing, and they are now family members.
Pets popularity has increased at the same time as fewer and fewer children are being born. A phenomenon noticed in many countries has raised the question of whether people have started getting dogs and cats instead of children.
So is the birth rate going down partly because of dogs and cats?
In Finland too for the last four years in a row, fewer children have been born in Finland than dogs have been registered.
In 2023, a total of 43,835 dogs were registered with the Kennel Association. 43,383 babies were born.
Now the difference was almost five hundred, but in the previous few years the number of puppies has exceeded the number of babies by thousands.
Pet According to a couple of studies on the matter, it seems that in people’s minds, it offers the kind of closeness and affection that could reduce the desire to have children.
In the United States, with a focus on pet veterinary medicine of the One Vet website in the survey, women born between 1981 and 1996 were asked. These four hundred women were pet owners and did not want to have children.
70 percent of those who responded to the survey considered their dog or cat their child. Just as many preferred the company of their pet to the company of a child.
Similarly, the majority said that they believe that keeping a pet is easier than raising a child.
Population Union research professor Anna Rotkirchia this display is still not convincing. He reminds that the respondents to the survey are a clear minority of women.
“Voluntarily childless people are a minority of all childless people. Among them, pet owners are an even smaller subgroup.”
The two actual studies from the United States and China that covered the topic are also based on small samples, and they are also not very credible in the opinion of the research professor.
Rotkirchin according to the position of pets in people’s lives has changed.
“When the standard of living rises and family sizes decrease drastically for various reasons, the position of pets and the emotional ties to them change. The general trend seems to be that a pet is not only a pet but also a family member, who is also treated genuinely as a family member.”
The new status of pets is indicated, among other things, by the amount of money spent on them in households increased sharply Since the 21st century.
“As a researcher, I think that all attachment relationships are good. If someone gets attached to a pet, it’s positive and it can help combat loneliness.”
Rotkirch does not believe that pets would displace children and the birth rate would decrease because of them.
“It’s not like I get a dog and then decide that I won’t get a child because of it. But if I don’t want or can’t have children, then perhaps a pet can somehow rise to another position.”
In Rotkirch’s opinion, acquiring a dog is more a consequence of not having children for some reason than the reason for not acquiring children.
“If you don’t have a spouse or a child, you want someone who will be happy when you come home. It’s quite understandable and probably often a better solution than being all alone.”