The pandemic delivered a surprise to Nordic countries: a baby boom

The long, dark winters may be great for making babies, but financial incentives play a bigger role.

A baby boom in Nordic nations comes as many other wealthy countries are seeing declining birth rates. Drífa Hrund Guðmundsdóttir, a molecular biologist, and her husband decided to have a third child during the pandemic and ended up with twins. “During the pandemic, in the middle of lockdown, things just kind of slowed down a lot,” Guðmundsdóttir says. Baldur Logi, a boy (left), and Brynja Lill, a girl, were born in March 2021.

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