[seydor]

I'm not sure if this is particularly revealing. The biggest gaps in that graph are in italy, greece (poor, abysmally low birthrates), and sweden , denmark (rich, demographically better). The "ideal" number is probably influenced by peers, by family, by culture etc, it does not reflect true desires. That's why every country has a higher number of "ideal" children, but in reality people seem to have less kids, because they want fewer kids (a case of 'watch what people do, not what they say'). At least , i think people in sweden and denmark, do have the number of kids they actually want.