Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.

SALT LAKE CITY - When you think of big families, one of your first thoughts might be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons. In the early 1980s, they were having an extra kid and a half compared to the rest of the U.S. on average. Latter-day Saints still have more children, but their families are shrinking.

The church's top leader addressed declining U.S. birth rates during the faith's semiannual General Conference in October, which millions of members tune into from aroun

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