Before you play

What This Fertility Figure Means

This game compares total fertility rate across countries.

  • The figure estimates how many children a woman would have over her lifetime under current age-specific fertility rates.
  • It is a demographic abstraction, not a promise about anyone's actual family.
  • Housing, education, childcare, coercion, migration, and mortality all end up hiding inside the average.

A fertility rate is a social contract wearing the costume of a number.