RobinBHM
Established Member
My understanding is that higher birth rates in poorer countries is driven by:
Only in recent decades where improved healthcare has benefitted even the very poor have very large families become the norm - children mostly grow and become reproductive adults.
- the expectation that the elderly will be supported by their offspring in the absence of state pensions and benefits
- high levels of child mortality due to famine, poverty, lack of health care etc which meant that many did not survive to adulthood
In the now developed world (UK etc) population growth was very low for centuries until the industrial revolution. Improvements to food supplies, housing, heathcare, sewage systems etc etc made child mortality a relative rarity. Birth control became acceptable and affordable.
It clearly takes a few generations for behavioural changes to reflect a new reality - hence much larger Victorian and Edwardian family sizes.
I would put it down to a lack of contraception.