Vietnam just abandoned its policy limiting families to two children. China now says, “Three is best.” The Russian government is targeting child-free lifestyles. And the White House is mulling baby bonuses.

Many countries are trying to reverse record low birthrates, but a new report from the United Nations Population Fund contends that governments are operating on a “fertility fallacy” — an assumption that young people no longer want children, or at least not as many as they once did. Policymakers, the report says, are failing to recognize the real crisis: money.

In surveying people in 14 countries on four continents, the agency found that financial security is a major issue for people considering whether to have children. Its report, published on Tuesday, says that many people have, or expect to have, fewer children than they wanted.

“It is often assumed or implied that fertility rates are the result of free choice,” the report said. “Unfortunately, that is not the whole picture.”

The report pushes back on a cultural and political narrative preoccupied with raising fertility, which blames younger generations, particularly women, for not having children because it would interfere with their desired lifestyles.

Instead of lamenting the rise of what Vice President JD Vance called “childless cat ladies,” or blaming individuals for dwindling populations, as many “pro-natalists” have, experts say that those who worry about stagnant or declining populations should scrutinize the conditions that make people doubt that they can raise children with a sense of security.