Finally, another sign that cultural reproduction is taking the place of biological reproduction is the simple fact that many individuals in the developed world are, for the first time, making the culturally informed decision to not reproduce biologically. This phenomenon is helping drive the trend towards a developed world that is already below replacement fertility level (Table 3). This means that we are currently at a crucial time period, as it appears we are reaching the "tipping point" where biological reproduction is becoming "too costly" to justify in the face of rising pressure for ever-greater cultural reproduction, as well as the increased opportunity for cultural reproduction-as-vocation. Most experts today do not factor in these pressures that will likely lead to ever further reduction of biological reproduction. However, leading reports still suspect that nearly half of the world's population is currently residing in countries at or below
replacement level fertility. Many other rapidly developing regions of the world should approach these fertility levels within mere decades and the entire world should have completed the transition to below replacement level fertility by 2050.