Singapore's total fertility rate of 1.2, which represents the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years, has been below the populationreplacement rate for more than three decades.
Larry Summers, Barack Obama's main economic adviser, has noted that current annualised vehicle sales of about 9m are well below the 14m necessary for replacement and rising population, while annualised housing starts are about a quarter of the rate needed to support the forming of new households.