Plunging Latin American fertility rates

The graph above is really startling, and very important re future environmental, social, political and economic conditions.  Here are some excerpts from the Washington Post article:

Fertility rates have dropped in many parts of the world in recent decades, but something particularly remarkable happened to the once-prolific family across Latin America. From sprawling Mexico to tiny Ecuador to economically buoyant Chile, fertility rates plummeted, even though abortion is illegal, the Catholic Church opposes birth control and government-run family planning is rare...

In 1960, women in Latin America had almost six children on average. By 2010, the rate had fallen to 2.3 children...

Demographers were astonished that Brazil’s fertility rate fell almost uniformly from cosmopolitan Sao Paulo, with its tiny apartments and go-go economy, to Amazonian villages and the vast central farming belt.

“Brazil started coming down and had this big drop that amazed everybody, everywhere,” said Suzana Cavenaghi, a Brazilian census bureau demographer. “We wouldn’t expect that in a country that’s so diverse, with a lot of poverty in so many places and so unequal, economically speaking.”..

“Women nowadays, they understand that they have to change their lives,” said Veronica Marques, communications director for Elas, a group that helps women start businesses across Brazil. “This idea of doing what she really wants to do, and having the power to do it, is the thing that has changed this country.”..

The lives of Brazil’s career women are often reflected in the country’s elaborate soaps, or telenovelas, which numerous U.S. and Brazilian researchers say have been an important factor in the drop in Brazilian fertility. The protagonists may be perpetually anguished about lost love, but they inhabit an appealing, affluent, highflying world, whose distinguishing features include the small family.

Other factors contributing to the change are discussed in the Washington Post article.