RE: Part II: connections between GDP, Education, Fertility and Religion
Interesting.
There is, however, a disconnection:
In all the countries, once the average education becomes the highschool, the total fertility rate drops to 2.
No connection in Muslim countries, 2-3 children is normal
you're showing two graphs with (supposedly) the same data, but they're looking very different. Can you clarify that?
And then, there's a general problem: the "Western" category uniformly has a education index >7. As you showed above,
After the 0.7 mark, it becomes irrelevant
If that is the case, how can we compare this group to the muslim/christian groups with most members below 0.7?
What I see is this:
- education inversively correlates with religion. No surprise.
- education correlates with GDP (up to a certain treshold)
- TFR (up to a treshold) correlates with either of them
Your conclusion:
Both education and family planning are purely guided by religion/culture/ lifestyle once the basic education and income are provided.
is only the half truth. Education/family planning are indistiguishable for countries with a education index above 7 regardless of culture, religion or GDP. before that, religion/GDP/education and fertility all go hand-in-hand and it's impossible to say which one causes the other, as they are linked.
But for sure, GDP is not the sole factor in fertility, there you are right.