According to a new study by the Institute for Economic Research and published by Etla, having advanced education increases the chances of women finding a spouse and starting a family by the age of 37. Surprisingly, for men, higher education does not promote family formation. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Norwegian School of Economics and Aalto University and focused on individuals born between 1979 and 1985 who were seeking secondary education or university of applied sciences.
The results showed that access to higher education increased the number of children for women, but had little effect on men. While it was previously believed that education made it difficult for women to start a family, this study found that highly educated women and men both have spouses and children more often than those with secondary education.
The study’s researchers, including Etla’s research manager Hanna Virtanen, suggest that possible explanations for these differences could be that men who pursue higher education tend to postpone having children due to career obligations or other reasons leading to difficulties finding suitable partners or fertility issues when they are ready to start a family. Further research is needed to understand the cause and effect relationships between education levels and family formation outcomes.
