Pre-script: I would be interested in better informed descriptions and opinions on the following. -- The title is, per the article itself, a bit misleading.

Pre-script: I would be interested in better informed descriptions and opinions on the following. -- The title is, per the article itself, a bit misleading. Per the article (I'm not in a position to assess its accuracy), Swedish and Scandinavian students become financially independent younger than in the U.S. and some other countries. Meaning, at the time they attend post-secondary education / university. The tuition and such are free, but independent students have significant living expenses that exceed the student stipend. Further, the amount they can earn through work before losing the stipend is capped. So, students borrow to cover living expenses. Where the debt comparison with the U.S. weakens: This is the key. While Swedish students end up with relatively high levels of debt, the monthly costs of carrying that debt are pretty cheap. (It’s about 3.8% of estimated average monthly income of new graduates, according to one study.) Interest rates are low. They’re set by the government and maintained through subsidies. And the length of repayment is long: 25 years or until the student turns 60. In other words, the Swedish system of student debt is financially manageable and sets students up to begin their lives as viable adults separate from their parents... Across Europe, slumping birth rates represent a long-standing economic, demographic and social problem. Sweden, though, is something of a hotspot for European baby-making. Some see clear links between young people moving out of parental homes early and taking the necessary steps to become parents themselves. (Anyone who has ever lived with mom and dad into their 20s will understand this intuitively.) “Childbearing in developed countries almost invariably takes place after young adults have left their parental home, and home-leaving constitutes a central correlate of fertility and union formation in Europe and other industrialized countries,” wrote sociologists in this 2006 paper.