[alistairSH]

I get the impression the birth rate is a function of cost, not opportunity.

Sample bias ahead: My friends are mostly married. Those that have zero or one child did so because of the cost (both in real dollars, opportunity cost, and general pain-in-the-ass of raising children in the US today), not the inability to find a suitable mate.

[mattmaroon]

Well sure, it’s not a total solution by any means, but there are people (including myself) who want kids but never had them because they didn’t find the right person with which to do so.

One only needs to increase the birth rate by about 25% to get back to population growth, so good online dating could probably make a meaningful impact. I am sure things like free health care and child care would be much better but they’d also be much more expensive, a decent online dating app could easily be at least budget neutral.