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Notes -
In big cities having three or four kids is a sign of either wealth or poverty. Maintaining a semi-affluent PMC existence becomes impossible on all but the highest doctor/lawyer/banker incomes with four children. Unless the kids are very close together they need multiple nannies, at least 2-3 rooms at hotels when you travel, a full-time housekeeper to clean up (or stay at home parent), a much larger apartment or a house and so on.
People struggle to either get used to a lifestyle well below their means (often little better than people on much more modest incomes who live in welfare states that provide generous per-child benefits, free childcare etc) or are in a constant financial struggle even if they make a nominally very comfortable income. You have to really want it.
That said, I grew up with two siblings and my parents always say they wished they had a fourth child. In their case it’s at least partially because they eventually had more money than they expected to, though.
I'd say that it's mostly a sign of religiousness.
We have two kids (no plans for more), and the clear majority of our child-having friends have 1 or 2 kids (though of course not all have finished their effective child-bearing years). Apart from some individual cases at the very outer edge of my (huge) list of acquaintances, all cases where there's more than three kids are religious.
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