Norway is now the richest country (in terms of GDP per capita) in the world. A good percentage of that money is going to maintain the living standards of women and children:
Another sign of contentment and economic security is the country’s fertility rate. Norwegian mothers have more children per head than anywhere else in Europe except Iceland and Ireland. Norway also has among the highest level of female participation in the workforce. Squaring the circle is maternity leave that stretches to 42 weeks on full pay.
There’s the answer, for all those keen to work out why Europe’s birth rate overall is so low.
America’s of course is not, but many of its pregnancies are less than good news. This is, it seems to me, an astonishing figure:
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a third of all U.S. girls become pregnant before they turn 20; 80 percent of them are unmarried.
U.S. teens are more likely to have sexual intercourse before age 15 and to become pregnant than teens in England and Wales, France and Sweden… The study also found that Western European teens are likelier to be in a committed relationship when they have sex. U.S. teens also have a higher rate of infection and STDs — due to lower condom use, according to the report.
What’s the difference? Religion and private medicine are probably the two main factors, I’d suggest.
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