Pointing to “economic conditions” as fundamental to fertility decline misses the mark.

Western societies today are far wealthier than they were a century or two ago. Real average incomes (and thus disposable incomes) in Western societies today are roughly 20 to 30 times higher than around 1820 and 7 to 10 times higher than around 1920 — that’s after adjusting for inflation and purchasing power. Yet we have far fewer babies than before.

Money is important to most people for most purposes but it doesn’t move the needle much when considering fertility. The rich don’t have much larger families than the middle class and the middle class doesn’t have larger families than the poor — just the opposite tends to be the case.  Poor countries and poor regions often have larger families than affluent ones.

While economic conditions for some are doubtless decisive factors in determining family size, for most assigning blame to an absence of money deflects their low priority to having children. Simply put, they’d rather spend their money on a larger home, a better car or dining out.