Average Family Size Declining in Costa Rica

Something I found really interesting is that the average family size is declining in Costa Rica.

These are the quotes I found:

"Today Costa Rica has an average of 1.82 children born to each woman, which is below the 2.1 “replacement rate” needed to keep the population steady. Experts are eyeing the rate to see if it falls to levels below 1.5 that raised alarm in some European countries.
As more Costa Rican women gain higher education and enter the workforce—or rise to the presidency like Laura Chinchilla—they are increasingly putting careers first. " - (www.americasquarterly.org/node/3170)

and

"The country's population is believed to have surpassed the 3 million mark in the last couple of years. Family size is declining steadily with parents who are now in their thirties having only 2 or 3 children, whereas they themselves come from families of 8 or 9. It would not be at all uncommon for their grandparents to have 12 or 14 siblings. The annual population growth rate is now at 2.3 percent. Another major factor adding to the steady increase of the population has been a regular stream of illegal immigrants from Nicaragua, which has extremely high unemployment." - (http://www.worldheadquarters.com/cr/people/)

Those are some huge birth number drops! It is interesting that one of the reasons for it is that women are getting more educated. However with the birth rate decreasing, there are immigrants coming in from Nicaragua which is adding to the population growth.