Couples who work from home at least one day a week have a birth rate that is, on average, 14 percent higher than households with no remote work arrangement, according to a study by the Ifo Institute, announced on Wednesday in Munich. The effect is particularly pronounced when both partners work from home.
The average figure of 14 percent is based on an analysis of 38 countries. A figure specific to Germany was not calculated, as Ifo researcher Mathias Dolls confirmed. The study did find, however, that the remote work effect is especially strong in the United States. There, the number of children born per woman is 18 percent higher among couples with at least some remote work compared to those with none at all.
"Our results suggest that broader access to remote work increases the number of children, presumably because it reduces the time and organisational effort needed to balance work and family," Dolls said. "More flexibility through remote work could help people achieve their desired family size more easily."
Raising Germany's remote work rate to the level seen in the United States could result in approximately 13,500 additional births per year, Dolls emphasised. Remote work alone cannot solve Germany's demographic problem, he added. However, it could serve as one building block in efforts to slow the ongoing trend of declining birth rates.
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