Wealth and Childbearing – Fertility by Parity According to Own and Parental Wealth in Swedish Administrative Taxation Data

The relationship between wealth and fertility has rarely been studied in high-income societies, in contrast to other dimensions of socioeconomic status. This study provides novel evidence of an association between wealth and fertility in contemporary Sweden by examining administrative taxation data for all Swedish men and women born in 1940 and 1960. The study considers both personal wealth and parental wealth and examines differences by parity and across the wealth distribution. Overall, the relationship between wealth and fertility in Sweden is relatively modest, with little difference in average fertility between the very wealthy and those with no wealth. The relationship is more negative for women and attenuates for the later cohort. The largest differences were found when examining how average wealth differs by parity, as the childless have greater wealth than women – and, to a lesser extent, men – with children. This finding contrasts with emerging positive associations between fertility and other dimensions of socioeconomic status, such as income, in Sweden and other high-income countries.