ELI5- Why do people in poorer countries have more children than those in developed countries?
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There are many reasons, one major is if you live where there are high child mortality rate you need to have more children to have some that reach adulthood. In less developed countries the retirement/elder care plan is that your children take care of you so you do what to have children that reach adulthood for selfish reasons.
The huge population growth that you can see often is the result of child mortality is reduced but the cultural norm of how many children you should have lags for something like a generation.
Look for example at [https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$model$markers$bubble$encoding$y$data$concept=children_per_woman_total_fertility&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&x$data$concept=child_mortality_0_5_year_olds_dying_per_1000_born&source=sg&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&frame$speed:100;&trail$data$filter$markers$usa=1800&gbr=1800&ind=1800&nga=1800&fra=1800;;;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v2](https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$model$markers$bubble$encoding$y$data$concept=children_per_woman_total_fertility&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&x$data$concept=child_mortality_0_5_year_olds_dying_per_1000_born&source=sg&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&frame$speed:100;&trail$data$filter$markers$usa=1800&gbr=1800&ind=1800&nga=1800&fra=1800;;;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v2)
I picked UK, US, France, India, and Nigeria as examples You can see babies per woman plotted versus child mortality over time. There is a trend for child mortality to reduce first and then a number of children a woman has. You will see that in what are rich countries today the number of children born in the 19th century was like in poor countries in more recent times.
Another large factor is access to, knowledge about, and acceptance of family planning. People will have sex and you need to take action to not get pregnant, if you do not the result will be lots of children.
Giving women access to and the ability to use what is needed for family planing is an efficient way to reduce the number of children born. This is not forcing anyone to do anything just giving them the option.
Look at for example [https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/why-do-the-poor-have-large-families](https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/why-do-the-poor-have-large-families) for more info
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