Norway's birth rate has been falling for over a decade. The answer is not moralising — it is removing the practical barriers that stop people from having the families they want.
When young adults say they want children but not yet, they are not being lazy. They are being rational. Housing is expensive, childcare has a price tag, and combining studies or early career with parenthood feels impossible. We want to change that equation.
Kindergarten is infrastructure, not a luxury. Just as roads and schools are free to use, childcare should be free for all families.
Today, a Norwegian family with two children in kindergarten pays around 50,000-60,000 NOK per year. For young families with student loans and high housing costs, that is a significant barrier. Some delay having children. Others leave the workforce — almost always women.
Free kindergarten removes a direct financial barrier to both having children and participating in working life. It pays for itself through higher labour force participation and the tax revenue that follows.
Life does not follow a straight line from education to retirement. People change careers, retrain, care for aging parents, or need time to recover. The welfare system should reflect that.
We propose life-phase grants: targeted financial support for transitions that benefit both the individual and society. Having a child while studying. Retraining at 45. Caring for a sick family member. These are not failures — they are normal life events.
Life-phase grants are administered through NAV as stipends, not loans. The principle is simple: when a transition benefits society, society should co-invest in it.
Today, having a child during your studies is a financial and logistical nightmare. The student loan system (Lanekassen) provides a modest birth grant, but it barely covers a month of nappies.
We want a study-parent package that makes it genuinely possible to combine parenthood with education: guaranteed kindergarten placement from the child turns one, a meaningful grant supplement (not just loan conversion), and flexible study progression without losing funding.
If we want people to have children in their twenties — when biology is on their side — we need to stop punishing those who do. The current system says "wait until you can afford it." By then, many cannot.
Young adults consistently cite three reasons for delaying children: they cannot afford housing, childcare is expensive, and having children will damage their career. All three are solvable.
Housing: We support policies that increase supply — more building, simpler regulation, and starter homes designed for young families. The housing market should not require two full incomes and parental help for a first purchase.
Childcare: Free kindergarten and extended parental leave address this directly. No family should have to choose between care and income in the first years.
Career: Employers who penalise parental leave — directly or indirectly — are wasting talent. We want stronger protections for parents returning to work, and a culture shift where taking leave is normal for both parents.
We will not lecture people about having more children. That is not the state's job. What the state can do is remove the obstacles that prevent people from living the lives they want.
The countries with the highest birth rates in Europe — France, the Nordic neighbours — are also the countries with the most generous family policies. This is not a coincidence. When society shares the cost and risk of having children, more people choose to have them.
Our approach is pragmatic: identify the barriers, remove them, and trust people to make good decisions for their own lives. The goal is not a specific birth rate target. The goal is a society where having a family is a real choice, not a privilege for those who can already afford it.
Family policy is just one of many areas in our party program. See the full platform.
Read more in the party program