Not OP, but likely that educated & well to do people don’t procreate much. While it’s lower rungs of society that procreates.
E.g. chance to procreate has reverse correlation to IQ.
E.g. chance to procreate has reverse correlation to IQ.
In Muslim communities, however, I would expect number of children to correlate with wealth/income (which is correlated with IQ) and with religiosity (which is not). So the overall picture is a lot more murky.
Big, developed cities like Istanbul and Tehran have TFR well below reproduction rate and very similar to European values. Backwaters like rural Afghanistan or Niger, where literacy is still uncommon, have tons of kids.
Basic education for women is very well correlated with lower TFR everywhere in the world.
Here's one thing some people in this thread need to understand. Nature doesn't care. Nature doesn't judge you if you don't have kids. Your genes being slightly less prevalent down the timeline isn't a punishment.
There's no high score table at the end of time saying "This is how good your genes did".
Even the idea that they are "yours" is pretty incoherent.
If stuff like who gets most kids worries you, you seriously need to look elsewhere for meaning in your lives. That's one thing you could learn from the Amish.
Nature doesn't judge you, it just gets rid of you.
I die because nature has selected humans to have a certain lifespan.
In many species, almost no individuals reproduce. Worker ants never have children. Same with worker bees. Plenty of species select have some/most members not reproduce to protect assist species.
From evolutionary perspective, only your genes are „your“ genes. And from tribal perspective, procreation of each (quality) member is for the better.
P.S. At some points in human history we had a similar only-chosen-procreate tendency. But it was overturned. I'd argue that for the better. Humans who have a stake in the future seem to care more about the society. Compared to ants-like society where warlord procreates and the rest of men just guards his harem.
A human being is a continuous process both genetically and culturally. Your forefathers form who you are and you form people who will live long after you.
There should be things which matter for their own sake, here and now, no matter what happens in the future. I can promise you that if you don't find them now, you won't find anything that matters in the future either.