Yesterday I watched a good talk on TED in which Hans Rosling discusses the impact of religion on population growth:
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_religions_and_babies.html
Of course, he comes down to say: very little. There are other factors that are important and that we can see having an effect on population growth, but the dominant religion in a country is not one of them.
Perhaps I'm baised: what he says here is how I understood the issue before watching his talk, but I think he at least does a good job of presenting the issue.
To sum up quickly: infant and child mortality, the status of women, access to family planning, and getting out of deep poverty* are all important when we talk about falling birth rates.
*I say deep poverty here: he basically says that once you reach a certain level of average income further increases don't really matter that much, but what is important is getting to the point at which children are not needed for work.
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_religions_and_babies.html
Of course, he comes down to say: very little. There are other factors that are important and that we can see having an effect on population growth, but the dominant religion in a country is not one of them.
Perhaps I'm baised: what he says here is how I understood the issue before watching his talk, but I think he at least does a good job of presenting the issue.
To sum up quickly: infant and child mortality, the status of women, access to family planning, and getting out of deep poverty* are all important when we talk about falling birth rates.
*I say deep poverty here: he basically says that once you reach a certain level of average income further increases don't really matter that much, but what is important is getting to the point at which children are not needed for work.