Australian research has cast doubt on claims that couples who work from home are more likely to start families or have extra children.
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who → cast → children
Ahead of new figures that are expected to confirm the nation’s fertility rate at a record low, the analysis by independent think-tank e61 suggests factors outside the greater flexibility offered by working from home is not enough for couples to take the parenthood plunge.
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couples → expect → plunge
Fertility rates around the developed world have been falling for decades, prompting an avalanche of government policies stretching from making mothers with several children tax-free to direct financial handouts.
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mothers → develop → handouts
Some analysis has suggested that enabling people to work from home both reduces some costs associated with having children while also making it easier on parents to care for their newborns.
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it → suggest → newborns
Research released earlier this year by a group of academics from Germany, the United States and Britain found adults who worked from home at least one day a week between 2023 and 2025 experienced a higher fertility rate.
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who → release → rate
They found when both parents work at home at least once a week, total fertility lifts by 0.32 children per woman.
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fertility → find → woman
But soon-to-be-released work by e61 research manager Pelin Akyol suggests there is barely if any change in fertility rates among Australian women who took up working from home during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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who → release → pandemic
Akyol compared post-2020 fertility rates of women aged between 30 and 44 across occupations with the ability to work remotely against 2019 levels.
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Akyol → compare → levels
While there was a small “baby bump” in 2021, Australia’s fertility rate started falling again in 2022 and reached a record low of 1.48 births per woman in 2024.
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rate → be → 2024
Akyol said the pandemic had created a natural experiment that allowed her to study the impact of the large lift in working from home that had occurred since 2020.
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that → say → 2020
While it had enabled more people to work at home, it had not led to a measurable change in fertility.
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it → enable → fertility
“Australia’s fertility decline is driven by various factors including the cost of raising children, housing affordability, economic security and the career costs of parenthood,” she said.
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she → drive → parenthood
“Working from home can make some parts of family life easier.
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parts → work → life
It reduces commuting time and gives workers more control over where they work, which may make it easier to combine paid work and care.
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it → reduce → work
However, it does not remove the financial and time costs of raising children, and it may not reduce the career costs of parenthood.”
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it → remove → parenthood
Akyol cautioned that her research did not mean workplace flexibility was unimportant for families or that it could have an impact over a longer period.
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it → caution → period
“Greater flexibility may still help parents combine work and care, even if it is not enough on its own to change fertility decisions.
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it → help → decisions
Workplace flexibility is therefore only one part of the fertility debate,” she said.
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she → say → debate
While working from home surged during and out of the pandemic, it was also accompanied by the largest increase in property prices on record with some capitals recording increases of more than 30 per cent.
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capitals → work → cent
That has prompted claims that high-priced housing, both in Australia and around the developed world, has contributed to the global drop in fertility.
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housing → prompt → fertility
Australia’s fertility rate fell by 20 per cent during the first five years of the Great Depression.
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rate → fall → Depression
Akyol found that women who were in jobs that were more able to be done from home reported lower intentions to have children after 2020 and said they were less likely to have more children.
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they → find → children
But she also found that this pattern had started before the pandemic, suggesting that working from home had done nothing to turn around women’s child-rearing plans.
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working → find → plans
The figures come ahead of the latest report on the number of births from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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figures → come → Statistics
The report will cover 2025.
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report → cover → 2025
A decade earlier, there were 300,000 births in a population that was almost 4 million smaller.
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that → be → population
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Subscribers → sign → newsletter
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