[eru]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_fer... suggests Chad and Somalia and DR Congo are the most vibrant societies by that metric.

You might want to compare Singapore with a city like NYC or London, not with a territorial state. It's pretty normal around the world for cities to be replenished mainly by people moving in.

(Of course, to be fair you then also need to compare GDP per capita against other cities. And they usually do a lot better than territorial countries that include a lot of hinterland.)

[HKH2]

What if you omit states that depend on welfare?

[greenavocado]

I never said a high TFR means a vibrant society. A low TFR is indisputably the slow death of a society.

[myrmidon]

> A low TFR is indisputably the slow death of a society.

No this is a non-sequitur.

Low fertility only means that the affected society grows smaller. This is only equivalent to "slow death" when it persists for centuries until the society is actually dead.

[petersellers]

Not necessarily if you take immigration into account.

[greenavocado]

A society replaced by immigrants is no longer that same society. My original point still stands.

[eru]

In the case of Singapore it would be just the opposite:

Singapore was and is build on the back of immigrants. Replacing ourselves with kids instead of immigrants would be the big change.

[thunderfork]

Whereas a society replaced by children...

[greenavocado]

Whereas a society replaced by its own children maintains continuity of community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests

[eru]

What about those societies that have traditionally replaced themselves via immigrants? Moving to a replacement via kids would be the change for them.

[thunderfork]

Plenty changes between generations. Still not the same society.

[eru]

Vatican is the deadest of societies, I guess?

[greenavocado]

Correct