On: Why are Europeans so hesitant to have children, and what does it mean for their future and for ours?

[davidw]

Obviously people aren't dying off or anything. What 'crisis' refers to is the fact that many couples in certain countries feel they can't have kids.

Clearly it's a complex issue, but the whole point of the article is that the birth rate varies quite a bit from country to country: Japan and Italy have very low rates, places like France and Sweden do better.