HELSINKI, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Finland's birth rate between January and May 2017 declined seven percent from last year, according to a latest report of Statistics Finland.
In response to the statistics published earlier this week, the new Finnish health and basic services minister Annikka Saarikko on Monday blamed the high cost of housing in cities and economic uncertainties for the declining birth rate as people ponder which stage in a career would be the best time for getting a child.
She said she was upset the most about the trend that the gap between envisaged family size and what will be ultimately attained is the widest in low income families.
In 2016, nearly 53,000 children were born in Finland, and the trend indicates less than 50,000 in 2017. The number would be the lowest since the famine in 1868.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto appointed centrist Saarikko on Monday to replace Juha Rehula in the health and basic services portfolio.
Born in 1983, Saarikko has been a Member of Parliament since 2011. Enditem
