This image is making the rounds on X, where it’s gotten millions of views. The implication is that curtailing women’s access to education will boost the birth rate. However, the graph is misleading - it’s showing global data and the trend lines are driven by women with less than a high school education, clustered in developing countries. Of course, there are lots of conditions that correlate with women’s access to K-12 education - literacy, health care, clean water, GDP - all of which also correlate with lower birth rates. We’ve known for a long time that wealthier countries have fewer births. In the U.S., birth rates are dropping fastest among women with the lowest educational attainment. Thousands of commenters on X, however, are currently arguing that we should keep women out of school!