In households that include at least one day of home‑office work per week, the average birth rate is 14 percent higher than in households that do not use home office at all. According to a new study from the Ifo Institute and Stanford University covering 38 countries, this translates into roughly one additional child over a woman’s lifetime for every three women-compared to peers who never work from home.
The effect is strongest when both partners work remotely. “The largest impact is seen when both partners are in home office, affecting both the number of children already born and those planned” says Ifo researcher Mathias Dolls. In the United States, the difference is even larger: couples who both work remotely at least one day a week report an 18 percent increase in births per woman relative to couples with no home‑office arrangement.
Dolls notes that greater flexibility from working at home may help people achieve the family size they desire. He suggests that elevating Germany’s home‑office prevalence to U.S. levels could add about 13,500 births annually. While more home office alone will not solve demographic challenges, it could serve as part of a broader strategy to temper falling birth rates.
The study draws on data from the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, focusing on respondents aged 20 to 45. It examines links between the share of home‑office work and actual birth figures between 2023 and 2025, planned future children, and lifetime birth rates across the surveyed countries.