According to a recent study, the option to work from home is enhancing women’s fertility, which has sparked discussions on allowing employees to forgo the office in an effort to address the declining birth rate in the UK.
This research, conducted by scholars from King’s College London and Stanford University, suggests that when both partners work remotely at least once a week, the average number of children a woman has over her lifetime can increase by 0.32.
In the United States, this figure can rise to 0.5 additional children per woman. Additionally, men who telecommute are statistically more likely to become fathers, particularly if their partners also work from home.
The findings indicate that remote work might be responsible for up to eight percent of births in the U.S.
With insights drawn from global surveys on work arrangements, the 52-page report highlights that flexible working can simplify family planning by eliminating the need for childcare coordination.
The study notes, “Based on the evidence in this paper and other research, we assert that working from home facilitates balancing career and family, which could explain its positive impact on fertility rates,” according to the report.
‘For societies faced with undesirably low birth rates, WFH can thus yield societal benefits that go beyond any direct benefits to employees and employers.’
Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, a lecturer in economics at King’s and an author of the paper, claims that allowing hybrid working would be a more straightforward way of boosting births than government interventions such as tax incentives.
Working from home boosts fertility rates, according to a new study based on surveys of workers across the globe
As well as making childcare arrangements easier, he believes the financial savings made by cutting out work-associated costs are also an incentive.
‘Financially, if you work from home two or three days a week, you save quite a bit of money. When you work from home, all the childcare-related duties become much easier because you have a lot of flexibility around your schedule,’ he said.
The report suggests that the UK is a standout example of a country where WFH is common – and that applying its prevalence of home working to other countries where it is lower could see them enjoy a baby boom.
In countries where birth rates are even lower, such as in Japan and South Korea, fertility rates could grow by more than four per cent.
However, he has stressed that this does not mean employees should be allowed to work from home all the time.
‘It is a very low-cost policy for countries, including the UK, to expand remote work opportunities for people,’ he added in the interview with the Telegraph.
‘That doesn’t necessarily mean that people should work 100 per cent from home. But if hybrid work becomes the norm, it will have positive effects on fertility outcomes.’
The UK’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.41 children per woman in 2024 – more than half the peak of 2.93 children in 1964 and below the ‘replacement-level’ rate needed to maintain a stable population of 2.1.
Birth rates have been in decline since the late 1960s, rising slightly in the late 2000s before dropping again throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s.
A landmark UN report published last summer suggests that a ‘lack of choice, not desire’ is behind a worldwide dip – with rising living costs, a lack of affordable housing and job security blamed.
However, lifestyle factors are also thought to be a cause – between women delaying starting families to focus on their careers and men opting not to commit to traditional family life.
As well as suffering a decline in population, a dropping fertility rate reduces the future work pool for Britain – reducing the taxes paid in to support an ever-growing ageing population born during the baby boom.
A report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) published last year warned that a dropping fertility rate could slash the workforce, lead to a decline in nursery and school places and create strain on the economy.
Experts have previously suggested that ditching obstacles to work – such as childcare costs and commutes – and giving couples more time together could boost fertility rates.
Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist who co-authored the paper, told the New York Times earlier this month: ‘You can’t get pregnant by email.’
