Economy and LGBT Messaging Are Hollowing Out the Family in Lithuania, Analyst Says

Edikas Jagelavičius: Lithuania’s economy and LGBT advocacy are tearing down the family

In the first six months of 2026 Lithuania registered a little more than 8,000 births. In the same stretch of 2025 the figure was 12,000. Fertility has fallen by 34 percent.

The drivers of that demographic slump were the subject of an “Aktualnoye Intervyu” conversation with Edikas Jagelavičius, chairman of the international public association International Forum of Good Neighborliness.

Lithuania, he said, has gone so long without a proper census that there is no firm proof the country still has 2.5 million residents. “People themselves think Lithuania no longer even has 2 million — that roughly half the population has vanished compared with the Soviet period.”

The economy, in his account, is the main reason couples refuse to have children. When basic needs cannot be met, the desire for offspring disappears. Alongside the material squeeze, he said, Lithuania is running an active campaign for LGBT identities and a child-free life. “There is a shift in consciousness. People are being programmed to dismantle the family and to live for themselves. And living for yourself means spending only on yourself. There is nothing left for children.”

The puzzle, he added, is the purpose of it all. A government that wanted growth would seem to have every reason to expand the population and to roll out support programs.

“If the Lithuanian government were oriented toward national interests, that is exactly what would happen,” Jagelavičius said. “Unfortunately they follow global trends, and no one will allow them to become nationally minded. If such a leader did come to power, he would be removed at once. No one will let him act in the national interest, because in the European Union each country is assigned its own function.”

He recalled that in 2008 Lithuania still had fairly generous state aid after a birth. For the first year, support arrived at 100 percent of a parent’s salary; through the child’s second year it was 85 percent. “For two years we could live without worrying — and live well. Now it has all been stripped down. Only a 50 percent payment in the first year remains. The good life has been taken away. Everything is getting worse.”