Why Are Young People Afraid to Have Children?

Hungary’s demographic debate often asks why younger generations are not having children. A more difficult and perhaps more useful question is what kind of economic and social environment has made family formation feel increasingly risky rather than natural.

Author: Olga Nádra

Economic Insecurity, Repeated Crises, and the Loss of Stability

In an earlier article, I examined the social and economic experiences that shaped the political choices of today’s young people. I concluded that the way this generation relates to public life is far from accidental. They were born into a world already marked by crises, insecurity, and a deep erosion of stability.

In the demographic debate, however, it is worth taking the argument one step further. Before asking why young people are not having children, it is important to state one basic fact: society is now expecting this relatively small generation to compensate for the declining birth rate, even though it is already smaller than their parents’ generation and significantly smaller than their grandparents’ generation. This in itself creates serious demographic and social pressure.

Politicians are well aware of these figures and trends, so my focus here is not on demographic data as such. Rather, I want to highlight the economic and social environment in which the very generation from whom society now expects a “solution” has grown up, and the experiences through which it has formed its view of the world.

Crisis as a Family Experience

Many of them were born during the 2008 global financial crisis or grew up directly in its aftermath. For them, however, this was not simply a distant economic event later explained in textbooks. It became a defining family experience.

Many watched their parents lose financial security. Foreign currency mortgages collapsed, homes were put at risk, family businesses failed, and people found themselves in hopeless situations, sometimes because of something as ordinary as a car loan. These children did not encounter the crisis in statistics, but within the walls of their own homes.

That distinction matters. An economic crisis can be understood at the macro level, but it can also be experienced as something deeply personal. A large part of today’s younger generation experienced the latter. They learned not merely that recessions and financial crises exist, but that a family’s security can collapse with alarming speed.

Childbearing Is Not Simply an Individual Choice

Public debate often treats having children as an individual decision, as if it depended only on young people’s values, sense of responsibility, or preferred lifestyle. Social science offers a more complex interpretation.

Childbearing is not simply a personal choice. It is a deeply embedded social phenomenon shaped by the economic environment, the sense of security, the functioning of institutions, and confidence in the future. Put differently, the real question is not only whether young people want children, but whether they feel able to take that risk.

This is a crucial distinction. Having a child is not a short term decision. It does not last for one or two years, but implies a commitment of at least fifteen or twenty years. That requires a predictable economic environment, stable income, functioning social support, and a reasonable sense of future security. In the absence of these conditions, having children becomes less and less a natural life step and more and more a high risk decision.

Growing Up in Permanent Uncertainty

Today’s young people, by contrast, live in an economic and social environment that has remained structurally fragile. The 2008 financial collapse was followed by the foreign currency loan crisis, then the economic effects of Covid, then inflation, then energy market instability, all alongside a war taking place on Europe’s doorstep.

And while this generation is expected to plan for the long term, its everyday experience tells it that the future is barely manageable.

Uncertainty also operates differently today than it did for previous generations. For parents or grandparents, crises were largely mediated experiences, filtered through evening news broadcasts, newspapers, and delayed information. Today’s young people live with uncertainty continuously in the digital sphere. News about inflation, images of war, economic alarmism, layoffs, and fresh crises follow one another constantly across social media and online platforms.

In such a permanent state of alert, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the future can really be predictable. Young people today do not simply live with economic insecurity. Many have gradually lost faith that the system will protect them in a moment of crisis.

The Memory of Foreign Currency Loans and the Contradiction of Debt Based Security

The foreign currency loan crisis was especially formative, as it destroyed the financial security of large numbers of families. Today’s younger generation witnessed this as children. They saw how quickly a flawed financial structure, an unpredictable system, and a moment of crisis could destroy an ordinary family’s life.

Against that background, it is striking that a significant part of today’s family support system still relies on loans. In other words, it rests on the same basic logic that once proved deeply risky on a mass scale. This contradiction in lived experience inevitably weakens trust. For young people, the issue is not simply whether support exists, but what kind of risk structure that support is tied to.

The Delayed Milestones of Adulthood

In this uncertain environment, the traditional milestones of adulthood have also been pushed further and further back. Independent housing, financial autonomy, a stable relationship, and the ability to plan for the long term are, for many young people, no longer normal life conditions but difficult goals to attain.

As a result, having children is increasingly less a natural part of one’s twenties and more a decision that many only dare to make once they finally feel secure. In many cases, that moment comes much later, or never comes at all.

In such a setting, childbearing is not merely an emotional or value driven question, but a form of risk taking. Young people are not avoiding parenthood because they are irresponsible or indifferent. They are avoiding it because they understand the risks only too well.

The Psychological Consequences of Insecurity

This has not only economic, but also serious psychological consequences. We are speaking of a generation socialised in long term uncertainty. For them, the future is not a predictable path but an unstable, often threatening space. Jobs are insecure, housing is uncertain, and economic news is almost constantly framed through crisis.

In such an environment, having children is no longer the obvious next step, but a decision that more and more people postpone, or never make at all.

And yet public debate keeps asking the same question: why are young people not having children?Perhaps it is time to ask another one.

What kind of system is it in which having children is no longer the natural next step for a generation, but a risk factor? Perhaps it is not the desire to have children that has disappeared. Perhaps it is the sense of security.

The absence of security does not encourage childbearing. Uncertainty rarely produces a vision of the future.

In the next part, I will examine the changing nature of relationships and family models.

Cover photo credit: ChatGPT

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