The Old world isn't that old...

The Economist has an interesting piece regarding Europe's recent demographics - lots of numbers and statistics, broken down when possible by ethnics and other big dividers.

It's in the eye of the statistician, though, so don't expect human cases or pondering on the difficult double role of the woman in the modern society.

But it seems tobvious to me that the main conclusion is: western women feel the traditional social pressure to set up a family; at the same time they want to be successful in the new way, i.e. having a career and so on. So, they settle for the minimums-size family, mom-dad-child. Once the shop is set up and they feel ready to have more, it's too late.

Immigrant women, who respond only to the traditional pressure, set up family very quickly and get 2.5 children on average.

Pity I didn't see Belgian (indigenous) girls cited, 'cause from what I can see here most of them are constantly pregnant. Well not exactly, but they certainly seems to have at least 2 children each.