The persistence of a two-child family ideal
in Europe
How persistent and universal has the two child family ideal been in Europe during the last three decades? The mean ideal family size has become closely clustered around 2.2 in most countries and none of the analyzed surveys suggests a decline in mean ideal family size to levels considerably below replacement.
[Tomá Sobotka and Éva Beaujouan - Population and Development Review, 15 September 2014.]