Religion and Fertility: Will the Religious Inherit the Earth?
&gt; India and Bangladesh, for example, are two countries with fertility rates at or approaching the replacement rate of 2.1. However, both nations are still some of the most religious, conservative, traditional and patriarchal countries in the world.<p>I think the article overlooks that the reasons for declining birth rate in different places are different. Among white Americans and Europeans, declining birth rates are due to post-modern views about families, social obligations, and self determination. In Bangladesh (where I’m from) it’s a matter of population control in a densely populated country.<p>The Islamic mandate to marry and have children is still nearly universal in Bangladesh. Mohammad said: “The best people of my nation (Ummat) are those who get married and have chosen their wives, and the worst people of my nation are those who have kept away from marriage and are passing their lives as bachelors.” Birth rates in Bangladesh didn’t decline because people stopped believing that. My dad worked in family planning in the developed world (I.e. population control) his whole career, including for a planned parenthood affiliate. But he wouldn’t have much common ground with a young American when it comes to the idea that having kids is optional, especially in America, where resources are plentiful.<p>As countries develop economically (and face demographic inversion) I wouldn’t assume birth rates wouldn’t go back up. The US fertility rate got down to 2 in 1940 (likely due to the economic pressures of the Great Depression) before bouncing back to 3.5 in 1960.