Well, what if our current economic structure in itself bears a fairly large responsibility for the declining birthrate though? It's something I wonder at times.

Well, what if our current economic structure in itself bears a fairly large responsibility for the declining birthrate though? It's something I wonder at times. Declining birth rates may not be a problem per se. But if they are, many economies I think need to adjust some of their policies. Certain countries seem to have paradigms that are not terribly friendly towards the idea of families and raising children. This paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255510/) identified some socioeconomic factors that might cause a delay of, or even outright rejection of, having children: Lack of affordable housing Lack of flexible and part-time career posts for women Lack of affordable and publicly funded (free) child care I'll add that education expenses are rapidly rising for some countries. Also, said career paths often come with a financial penalty for mothers (particularly for college women -- it is well known that motherhood in itself is a big reason for the pay gap between the sexes -- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap-is-largely-because-of-motherhood.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap...). Small wonder that the birthrate is declining. In fact, in some countries, you might postulate that the economic system in itself is actually hostile towards having children.