Flutterby™! : Birth rates & preference

Interesting: I'd always thought that the relatively low fertility rate among humans in developed Western nations was a matter of choice:

But even people who don’t think falling birth rates are bad in and of themselves may have reason to think boosted fertility is a good indicator. The logic behind this rests on what demographers call “desired” or “wanted” or sometimes “intended” fertility. That is, we can simply ask women how many kids they think would be ideal. Women are surveyed at many different ages, but one simple thing to do is to look at what women who are done having kids and compare that to how many kids they had. Using data from the OECD, we can do this, directly comparing completed fertility to the fertility those women think would have been ideal, had their life and family choices played out the way they wished. For the United States, I use “intended fertility” of women over 35, which probably understates this gap versus the European countries included.

Can Uncle Sam Boost American Fertility?

I think generally the levels of human population on this planet are running us on the ragged edge of disaster, but I had thought that the lower birth rates were a preference, and it turns out they may be more an economic decision. Which, yeah, is a preference, but not quite the same.