Why is the replacement level for population considered 2.1 and not 2?

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I understand that many women will not have kids or will have only one kid, or that child mortality is involved but still a fertility rate of 2 means that ON AVERAGE every woman will have 2 kids. This means that every woman and man will be replaced, including the children that die young if the rate of 2 lasts (the newborn females will also have on average two kids). So why isn’t a fertility rate of 2 enough to replace the population?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Assume that the replacement rate considers women of child-bearing age. Then factor in the women who die before they actually have children. They were still of child-bearing age, so they through off the total count, but didn’t have kids, so reduce the replacement numbers. E.G. a woman, aged 55, dies childless. She was of childbearing age, but had no children. Another woman, also of child-bearing age, has to take up that slack.

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