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It's not just modern western education. Basic education for girls in third-world countries is associated with lower birth rates. Additionally, comparatively minor decreases in poverty in undeveloped countries correlate with declines in birth rates -- possibly because declining poverty usually goes hand in hand with declining infant mortality. The latter being one of the biggest reasons that the average birth rates in developed countries have dropped from 30-40 per thousand to 10-15 per thousand in just the past 150 years.