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?
In: 701
If it was as simple as replacement, 2 would be fine. The population becomes static.
But imagine if something happens that kills a lot of people. Like, I don’t know, a pandemic.
The population won’t bounce back. It remains static. The lower number is forever.
A century later, another pandemic.
The population won’t bounce back. It remains static at the lower number.
And so on, and so forth. As long as the birth rate and the death rate match, disasters will steadily chip away at the population. In order to keep the population up and thriving, you need to have a slightly higher birth rate to account for these things.
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