Choosing not to have children is part of a wider trend to smaller family size. Having a single child was once rare, usually the result of physical or marital problems, and thought to be bad for the child. Now it is unremarkable. The decision not to have children, even for couples in stable long-term relationships, is following suit.
Fertility rates are falling across the OECD, for a variety of cross-pollinating personal, social and political factors. In Italy, Spain and Portugal, where Catholicism once encouraged procreation and forbade contraception, and in tradition-bound Japan, the rate has dropped towards 1.3 live births per woman, well below the 2.1 required to maintain a steady population.
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