Latest Gallup Poll: 2+ Kids Is a Good Family Size

What's the optimal family size? In the US, the consensus seems to be families with an average of 2.7 kids, according to a Gallup survey last month, which asked Americans what their ideal number of children would be.

• More than 80% of respondents say at least two is preferable, with 40% pinpointing exactly two as the magic number. Somewhat behind that are the 27% who think three kids should be the goal, followed by 11% for four kids, and 5% for both only children and five or more kids. Having no children received just 2% of the vote.

• That's a noticeable shift from the late '30s, when Gallup first started measuring such stats and found that the average ideal number of kids was 3.6. Meanwhile, the US birth rate has fallen to a record low of 1.6 births per woman.
• That declining figure has caused some angst within the pronatalist movement, which asserts we should all be concerned about a population collapse and aim to boost birth rates. Many pronatalists are out of Silicon Valley, including Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who regularly tweets his concerns on the matter through the lens of how it affects "the West."

• The Daily Record contends that much of that panic is unwarranted, citing "unrealistic assumptions" on extrapolating current fertility rates, and that it ignores useful information like the job market and economic policies that could put birth rates in context.
• Writing for the London Standard, Eilidh Dorgan tried to get more information on what the ideal family size might be. Her first request for info, directed toward a chatbot, resulted in a rather ornery answer spit back at her. "It is a profoundly personal choice and everyone's views and circumstances differ!" the bot fumed. Dorgan then turned to her human colleagues, all with different family sizes, to find out how they felt—and it turns out the chatbot may have been right after all. More here.