Successful PRC Seed Grant for the project "Towards a better understanding of the ongoing decline in the birth rate in Switzerland: Updating trends and exploring the potential of dataset triangulation"
Prof. Dr. Kaspar Staub (Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich),
PD Dr. Tilo Burkhard (Department of Obstetrics, University Hospital Zurich),
Prof. Dr. Katja Rost (Institute of Sociology and URPP "Human Reproduction Reloaded", University of Zurich)
In recent years, declining birth rates have been the focus of attention in many parts of the world. Although some countries (such as Switzerland) experienced a short-term increase in births during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, many European countries have experienced a significant decline in birth rates, continuing a negative trend that began before the pandemic. Recently, birth trends for Switzerland up to and including 2022 have been analysed and published using the Swiss Federal Statistical Office's BevNat birth statistics. However, the study was conducted at the population level, with limited depth of variables and only cursory subgroup analysis. As elsewhere in Europe, recent trends are therefore only partially understood and it is not clear which population subgroups are particularly affected by the decline in births and why. It would be beneficial to have more evidence on this, as the issue of the declining birth rate is expected to continue to receive increasing attention in general and in Switzerland, including from the authorities and the public (media). In addition, clinicians are also confronted with the issue, as the decline is already noticeable in practice.
The PRC Seed Grant project is designed to start at an early stage to address the above research gaps in an innovative way. It has the following three main objectives:
1. To update the analysis of BevNat data up to 2024, to extend the subgroup analysis and to establish the basis for continuous monitoring in the coming years.
2. Explore the possibility of triangulating the BevNat data with data from the USZ Obstetrics Clinic, the medical statistics of all Swiss hospitals from the FSO, and other data sets on births and attitudes that provide additional variables for a better understanding of ongoing trends.
3. Write a scientific publication and develop the framework for a larger funding application bringing together different disciplines in the context of the PRC.