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Part of the reason is the DISCONNECT between advances in medicine/healthcare, the economy, and traditional mentality regarding family planning. In many Third World countries, families traditionally have a LOT of children so the children can help with the farm work. Moreover, due to insufficient medical care/preventive medicine, only a FRACTION of the children live to adulthood. These historical facts foster a mentality that 1) a family must have a lot of children 2) children owe their allegiance/income/labor to the family unit.
As societies evolve economically where mechanization, improved healthcare, and workforce mobility are prized, the traditional concerns justifying a large family are minimized.
Hence, the higher the income of a country/the higher their economic advancement, the lesser the number of children.
Another KEY factor in maintaining the traditional family mentality discussed above is the education level of women of a particular country. The higher the education of women, the smaller the family size. This fits in to the factors above since women must WANT to or at least SUBSCRIBE to the traditional mentality for its effects to take hold.
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