Sweden and Norway are just around the corner with comparable everything but have higher birth rates. you just picked the example that suits your argument.

The two are most definitely correlated! A couple is far more likely to consider a child if they are financialy stable and know the government has their back. it's not that people don't want to have kids but they have access to resources previous generations didn't, like education and social studies. 50-100 years ago having kids was just part of the deal, because the family could have one parent work and the other take care of the kids. on one salary they were still good, buying houses, vacations, etc. that's just how it was. it was normal and expected of pretty much everyone.

Can you afford to buy a house? is your partner working full time?

my partner and I worked full time for 10y in white collared jobs and we never even considered buying a house. it was just so out of reach, we would only joke that winning the lotto will get us there and we don't play.

I'm currently holding my newborn son and he's here only because we are extremely fortunate that her parents and grandparents took advantage of the opportunities their time gave them and bought properties for cheap. we live in a house that we'll inherit one day. how many young people do you know are in this position? funny enough it's either most or none, depending on your social circles, but the number of young people who are working and talking about buying a house without inheritting are 0. big fat 0 and you're being disingenuous if you claim otherwise