Young people in Georgia and across Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to value marriage and parenthood, but financial insecurity and other structural challenges are preventing many from having the families they want, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says.
The findings, released on July 9 ahead of World Population Day on July 11, are based on UNFPA’s global Demographic Futures Survey, which examined family and fertility aspirations among young people in 11 countries and territories, including Georgia.
The survey challenges the idea that young people are losing interest in having children. Instead, it suggests that most still hope to marry and become parents, but struggle to achieve those goals because of economic and social barriers.
Around 79% of respondents across the region said they want to marry, while 87% described joy and happiness as an important or very important reason for having children. Most said they would like to have two or more children.
Despite reporting greater concerns about conflict, economic crises, and unemployment than their peers in Western Europe and East Asia, around 65% of young people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia said they feel optimistic about their future, compared with 50% in the comparison group.
The survey found a significant gap between the number of children respondents hope to have and the number they actually have by their late 30s. Among women, the gap is 1.25 children, while among men it is nearly two children. The largest gap was recorded in Ukraine, where women ideally want three children but have just over one on average.
More than one in five women aged 35 to 39 remain childless, although 95% of them said they want children.
“The survey findings are a call to governments to listen to young people, understand the barriers they are facing, and develop policies that support them in realizing their family and fertility aspirations,” said Florence Bauer, UNFPA Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Financial insecurity was identified as the biggest obstacle to starting a family. Other major barriers include the lack of affordable housing, health problems, difficulty finding a suitable partner, and concerns about the unequal division of childcare and household responsibilities.
The survey also found that many young people see family formation as a sequence of milestones, with stable employment expected before independent housing, housing before a long-term partnership, and partnership before parenthood. When one of these steps is delayed, plans to have children are often postponed as well.
“This survey makes clear why policies trying to influence young people’s decisions about having children through incentives or pressure don’t work – they intervene at the wrong stage,” Bauer said. “What we need instead is policies that remove the barriers leading up to this decision – in employment, housing, health and gender roles in the family.”
The survey was conducted in 2025 among more than 13,500 internet-connected people aged 18 to 39 in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. It forms part of UNFPA’s global Demographic Futures Survey.
