 The fertility rate of the world has been going down on its own for a while now but what has been driving it down? The main driver is, without a ounce of doubt, the empowerment of women across the globe, both in general and especially in terms of education and social status. The level of education attained by women is one of the best predictors of how many children they will have. The more educated they are, the fewer the children they'll have.