Fertility in Larsmo: The Effect of Laestadianism

Abstract

Larsmo is a small municipality on the West coast of Finland with an exceptional fertility development due to the presence of a revivalist movement, Laestadianism, which is opposed to contraception. About 40 per cent of the population are Laestadians. Laestadians do not cohabit outside formal marriage, and the rule of pre-marital sexual abstinence seems to be observed. Within marriage, fertility seems to be unrestricted with respect to the first child, but an increasing proportion of Laestadians have begun to practise family planning, lengthen birth intervals, and restrict their families to three or four children. There remains, however, an inner group which appears to procreate without restriction. Since mortality is very low, a total fertility of six births per woman corresponds to a net reproduction of about 2.9, which is among the highest documented after 1970.Fertility in Larsmo has traditionally been high, and we expected that the presence of pro-natalist Laestadians would tend to increase the fertility of non-Laestadians as well. However, the demographic behaviour of non-Laestadians in most respects resembles that of the Finnish population as a whole, although extra-marital cohabitation seems to be rarer, since almost all the children born are legitimate.