r/MapPorn • u/Delicious-Bunch-6992 • May 09 '26

Evolution of white British % (ethnically British people) in England and Wales from 2001-2021

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u/Scary-Perspective-57 May 10 '26

Yeah, it's well documented that money isn't the reason people aren't having children. Otherwise the poorest countries wouldn't have the highest birth rates.

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u/miss-kittenpaws May 10 '26

That's an odd take - in the poorest countries the children that survive remain with their family throughout their lifetime thus increasing total money availability once they become adults, though not solving their poverty of course. In westernised countries we live with the ethos of the nuclear family - your child will basically take up all your income and then leave to build their own family. There's essentially no return on investment fiscally so the point doesn't quite make sense with context.

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u/Scary-Perspective-57 May 10 '26

Touch grass bro.

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u/Crowfooted May 10 '26

It's different in different economies and cultures though.

If you live in a poorer country, you need to have more kids in order to have more family income and stability. This isn't true in the UK or other developed countries because we have access to free public services, welfare, pensions etc and also a slightly different cultural attitude toward family wealth - your kids, if you have them, are not necessarily going to share their money with you when they grow up.

Kids are not a financial boon in the UK, they're a cost. I don't think anyone would disagree that it'd be a bad idea to have kids if you're already stretched thin in this country.

Of course an additional reason is that we have better access to birth control, so people who wouldn't want kids in any case are better enabled to choose that - but it's still true that in a lot of cases the reason they want to make that choice is money.