$586,651,144

[bisonaudit]

Yeah just a guess. An uneducated one. I've read that more developed societies tend to have many fewer kids. I've seen the European and Japanese birth rates have plummeted. We seem to have more kids than them but it's trending down still I think.

Its pretty straight forward. When you are reasonably assured that your children are going to survive to adulthood you have fewer of them and invest more in each one. When societies transition through this phase of development you get a population explosion.

[ByeSonBusiness]

Its pretty straight forward. When you are reasonably assured that your children are going to survive to adulthood you have fewer of them and invest more in each one. When societies transition through this phase of development you get a population explosion.

How does that explain the giant families we saw 50 years ago. I dont think there was much childhood mortality back then either? Then again...those were mostly farm families I guess. Dad is horny and wants help milking the cows

[scottietohottie]

How does that explain the giant families we saw 50 years ago. I dont think there was much childhood mortality back then either? Then again...those were mostly farm families I guess. Dad is horny and wants help milking the cows

Winters are cold and heat sucked back then bro.

[ByeSonBusiness]

Winters are cold and heat sucked back then bro.

Scottie how many slaves do you own?

[bisonaudit]

How does that explain the giant families we saw 50 years ago. I dont think there was much childhood mortality back then either? Then again...those were mostly farm families I guess. Dad is horny and wants help milking the cows

Individual people make individual choices. It’s like the difference between weather and climate.

[JMB]

I always enjoy being captain obvious, but U of M tuition rates are simply outrageous. They may want to figure that out to get more kids; that and get people to copulate more....

For Minnesota students, NDSU is a very attractive financial alternative to in state Universities. Plus, NDSU is relatively easy to get to from the Twin Cities area.

[Hammerhead]

How does that explain the giant families we saw 50 years ago. I dont think there was much childhood mortality back then either? Then again...those were mostly farm families I guess. Dad is horny and wants help milking the cows

Many families were big because they can work on the farm and birth control options were limited back then. Infant mortality rates were also higher. I remember wandering through the cemetery in my dad's hometown and there were lots of markers for infants.

[Hammersmith]

How does that explain the giant families we saw 50 years ago. I dont think there was much childhood mortality back then either? Then again...those were mostly farm families I guess. Dad is horny and wants help milking the cows

That was the baby boom anomaly of the prosperous 50s following the prolonged tough times of the Great Depression and WWII. If you look up charts of US family size from the 1800s through the present, there's a pretty smooth drop with the exception of the baby boom decade. Goes from about 7 children/woman on average in 1800, to the current 1.8-1.9.

The rate was 3.17 in 1920 prior to the GD, then sharply dropped to 2.22 in 1940 after the GD and as WWII was starting. It bounced up to 3.62 in 1960 once all the post-war baby-making had finished, then was back down to 1.84 by 1980 as the baby boomers all reached adulthood. It's fluctuated between 1.7 and 2.1 since then.

And there has historically always been a disconnect between rural and urban birth rates. If your sample size comes exclusively from central North Dakota, don't assume that that experience would hold true for the rest of the country.

And it gets so much more nuanced when you start factoring in socioeconomic status, religion, ethnic backgrounds, education level. What's true in one part of the country, state, county, or even city is not necessarily true for the rest.

[ByeSonBusiness]

That was the baby boom anomaly of the prosperous 50s following the prolonged tough times of the Great Depression and WWII. If you look up charts of US family size from the 1800s through the present, there's a pretty smooth drop with the exception of the baby boom decade. Goes from about 7 children/woman on average in 1800, to the current 1.8-1.9.

The rate was 3.17 in 1920 prior to the GD, then sharply dropped to 2.22 in 1940 after the GD and as WWII was starting. It bounced up to 3.62 in 1960 once all the post-war baby-making had finished, then was back down to 1.84 by 1980 as the baby boomers all reached adulthood. It's fluctuated between 1.7 and 2.1 since then.

And there has historically always been a disconnect between rural and urban birth rates. If your sample size comes exclusively from central North Dakota, don't assume that that experience would hold true for the rest of the country.

And it gets so much more nuanced when you start factoring in socioeconomic status, religion, ethnic backgrounds, education level. What's true in one part of the country, state, county, or even city is not necessarily true for the rest.

Oh that's fun! My parents grew up in Wells County. So they are basically the definition of your "dont judge a rural ND area by national standards' lol.

But yeah there is a ton that goes into it. What makes it amusing to me is all my grandparents came from small families and then proceeded to breed like rabbits.

[CAS4127]

Its pretty straight forward. When you are reasonably assured that your children are going to survive to adulthood you have fewer of them and invest more in each one. When societies transition through this phase of development you get a population explosion.

Exact opposite really. When you are reasonably concerned your offspring won’t survive to adulthood/being self-sustaining, because of your own situation, and assuming a form of intelligence in baby-making, you instinctively/thoughtfully have less, unless you’re into having your offspring die before you or have a shit life otherwise.

But that’s rational/measured thoughts, of which we really have very little theses days it seems/appears.