After leaving the UK and starting a family in Finland, a young mum has outlined the massive differences in the cost of childcare
The UK birth rate has fallen to a record low of 1.39 children per woman in England and Wales for 2025. A large part of the reason for that is that it is simply too expensive for Brits to have kids.
In Finland, the government makes it much easier to start a family. Couples receive a total of 320 working days of paid parental leave per child, with expectant mothers being granted an additional 40 working days of pregnancy allowance, which begins 14 to 30 days before the estimated due date
Every expectant parent living permanently in Finland is also eligible for the famous Maternity Grant. Parents can choose between a cash grant or the Äitiyspakkaus, a standard-setting maternity package that contains an array of high-quality clothing, bedding, and infant essentials.
Susanna, who has documented her family journey on her@helsinkimum Instagram account explained to the i newspaper how she and her Welsh-born husband Dan moved back to her native Finland to start a family after initially meeting in the UK.
She explained: “In Finland, parents share a pool of paid parental leave between them, around 13 months in total, with one parent being allowed a maximum of 10 months. The leave itself is a legal right through our social insurance system, so it’s the same for every family and the state pays around 70% of your income.”
Susanna says that she and Dan divided the total leave entitlement between them: “We allocated most of it to me; Dan was at home with us for the first three weeks, and later spent a full three-month summer at home with our little one whilst I returned to work.”
The generous amount of paternity leave, compared with the fortnight mandated under UK law, was a lifesaver. She explaind: “The first weeks we had at home together with the baby were more survival than bonding. I can’t imagine if Dan had only been at home with us for two weeks.”
She added that the flexibility of the Finnish system “takes a lot of the pressure off starting a family in the first place.”
Because statutory paternity pay in the UK is so low, amounting to £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, around a third of British fathers will end up taking no paternity leave at all. It’s worth noting that statutory paternity pay is still subject to deductions such as income tax and National Insurance.
In the UK, once your child is ready for nursery school, you can expect to pay an average of about £250 a week for a full-time place, although that figure can climb to more like £500 for nurseries in sought-after areas of the capital.
By contrast, Susanna says, the Finnish government offers huge support to working parents. From nine months old, children can go to nursery full-time for a maximum of €335 (£288) a month, she claimed. Families on low incomes can send children for free.
