Sex please! Danes vow to save town schools by having more kids

As schools and daycare centers in a Danish town face closure, parents have agreed with local councils to have more sex and thus make more children to improve birth rates, local media report.

The parents in the town of Thy, northwestern Jutland, promised to procreate after being warned that childcare and educational institutions might be closed or merged with others in adjacent areas due to dwindling pupil numbers.

They brokered an agreement with Thisted Council under which locals will try to have more kids over a four-year period

Politicians urged area estate agents, banks and civic institutions to help save the institutions and keep residents from moving away.

READ MORE: Do it for Denmark! Low birthrate kicks campaign urging Danes to have more sex

“When it comes to partnership deals, it’s all about cooperating with many local actors to build up a synergy. It’s cooperation, and not just with the parents. We need to get the falling birth rates turned around,” Thisted Council spokeswoman Ulla Vestergaard told broadcaster DR on Thursday.

The deal comes amid dropping birth rates and growing numbers of women planning to have kids when they are older. According to the Local.dk, the average age of becoming a parent for the first time is about 30 years – five years older than it was in 1970. Twenty percent of Danes never become fathers while twelve percent of women don’t have children or don’t have the number of children they wanted to have, according to the fertility awareness organization, Dansk Fertilitetsselskab. In 2012, the national birth rate was reported at 1.7 children per couple.

Denmark has previously launched several campaigns aimed at encouraging young families to have children.

In October, the Danish Family Planning Association (Sex & Samfund) said it will develop a special educational program to teach students that women’s fertility begins to decline in their late 20s, the Local.dk reported.

“When you look at sex education for the oldest students, it’s largely about how not to have children, so there is a focus on prevention, the use of contraceptives and the option of abortion. That means that young people lack knowledge on fertility and pregnancy,” Sex & Samfund spokesman Bjarne Christensen told the Danish national daily newspaper Berlingske.

In March, a local travel agency launched a perky ad with a patriotic name “Do it for Denmark!” urging Danes to have more sex while on vacation.