Selective Neoliberal Pronatalism in Finnish Population Policy Responses to Fertility Decline

The trend of rapidly declining birthrates in Europe has led to the rise of population-political discourse on reproduction and family politics, particularly in the Nordics, where institutional support for families and parenthood has been driven by egalitarianism. Of the Nordic Welfare states, Finland has shown the steepest decline in fertility. In this paper we analyse two Finnish population policy reports, published in response to the historically low fertility projection at the turn of the 2020s. We discuss the contemporary population-political framing of reproduction, parenthood and family formation in the policy recommendations, which are based on demographic expertise. Using the ‘What is the problem represented to be?’ method, we analyse how the phenomenon of less children being born is defined as a political problem demanding rapid measures. We identify the presented causes of and suggested solutions to the declining birthrate and investigate the values, ideologies and presuppositions that the presentation of the problem comprises. Drawing on feminist critique of population control, we demonstrate how focusing on individual capacities when problematizing the low birthrate promotes individualized demographic governance in the form of selective neoliberal pronatalism.