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The number of Portuguese of childbearing age who do not have or want to have children has increased: 10%, according to the 2019 Fertility Survey, released this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Why? Due to lack of desire and because motherhood or fatherhood are not part of their life projects, reveals the survey. In 2013, in the last fertility survey, this figure was 7.3%. As expected, the average number of desired children fell to 2.15, down from 2.31 that constituted the desired fertility in 2013.
During these six years, the desired fertility, that is, the average number of children considered as ideal, is considerably below the number of children that people have had or intend to have, which does not exceed 1.69 children on average (there were 1.78 in 2013).
This mismatch between aspirations and real life will contribute, among other contingencies, to men and women having their first child later than desired. It happened to 58.5% of men and 45.1% of women.
For 36% of women, the postponement of motherhood has lasted for at least five years. And, when asked why they had their first child much later than they wanted, most pointed to a lack of financial and job stability and housing conditions.
The need for more incentives for birth is practically a consensus among respondents (nine out of ten). And the measure directed at the head as a facilitator of motherhood and fatherhood is framed in the field of working conditions, more specifically in the flexibility of working hours when children are young. The expansion of the network and access to nurseries, kindergartens and ATL was the so-called “most important” measure in the context of access to services.
Regarding family income, women and men differed in their opinions: for them, the measure identified as the most important was “to increase subsidies related to education, health, transportation, housing and food for the households with children ”, while among them,“ reduction of taxes ”, including“ increasing tax deductions for those with children ”.
