For years now, fertility rates in Australia have been dropping.

Access to cheap contraception, along with better education and career prospects meant women started having babies a little later in life - and fewer of them. 

But now there are new reasons. Experts believe the most recent decline in the fertility rate is also a bellwether of unique contemporary challenges facing young workers. 

Today, senior economics writer Matt Wade on whether young people are being forced to choose between having homes and having children.

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