In today's class we were talking about the fertility rate and economic conditions of Québec in the first half of the 20th century. This site gives some further context about those issues. This chart of contemporary fertility rates by nation gives you some statistics about birth rates around the world today. As I mentioned, although the US comes in at #124 of 223 countries, it's interesting to see how much further down that list are countries like the UK (174), Canada (183), and Russia (195).