I selected a number of countries from the source list. It is interesting to notice that the worldwide fertility rate for 2005 was ranked at 104 with 2.6 kids/family.
Most european and westernized countries have low ratios. Whereas 'developing' countries seem to have a lot of children born to each mother in comparison. Some correlate poverty with family size, but at least in western countries where the number of children you have is largely a personal (our a couple's) choice this does not hold. In largely agricultural societies it may be true that the more children you have the more work you can do so the more likely your family is to survive, despite having a few more mouths to feed.
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| | Rank | Country | Fertility Rate | | 1. | Niger | 7.55 | | 5. | Uganda | 6.74 | | 10. | Angola | 6.42 | | 20. | Guinea | 5.83 | | 30. | Eritrea | 5.2 | | 40. | Gabon | 4.77 | | 49. | Iraq | 4.28 | | 54. | Saudi Arabia | 4.05 | | 77. | Philippines | 3.16 | | 80. | Malaysia | 3.07 | | 89. | Egypt | 2.88 | | 110. | Mexico | 2.45 | | 112. | Israel | 2.44 | | 131. | United States | 2.08 | | 143. | Brazil | 1.93 | | 165. | Australia | 1.76 | | 155. | France | 1.85 | | 157. | Iran | 1.82 | | 160. | New Zealand | 1.79 | | 174. | China | 1.72 | | 179. | United Kingdom | 1.66 | | 186. | Canada | 1.61 | | 188. | Taiwan | 1.57 | | 193. | European Union | 1.47 | | 198. | Germany | 1.39 | | 200. | Japan | 1.39 | | 206. | Greece | 1.33 | | 215. | Russia | 1.27 | | 216. | Korea, South | 1.26 | | 224. | Singapore | 1.05 | | 226. | Hong Kong | 0.93 |
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* rates estimated for 2005 according to source
Source:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
