Anecdotally I see that too. Almost all of my children's classmates come from 2 child families with the occasional single; almost all of my wife's surgeon friends have 0 or >2 children.
You may be right. Although I'd claim that a trend piece + a modest change in demography aren't quite the same as a "mark of social status".
I'm applying the following standard: if someone told me that their friend had 3 kids, would I infer something about their social status? At least for me, not really? Like you said, the poor and rich both have >3 children. ymmv of course
21 percent of families earning > $200K had at least 3 kids in 2011, an increase from 15% in 2000. Every other demographic saw their numbers go down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/fashion/The-Growing-Three...
Anecdotally I see that too. Almost all of my children's classmates come from 2 child families with the occasional single; almost all of my wife's surgeon friends have 0 or >2 children.