5.3 Culture and Population Growth

Culture's demographic levers:1. Marriage universality and early marriage — the age-at-marriage as fertility's strongest cultural tap (the Civil Code's 20-year rule as law's counter).2. Son preference — continuing births until a son (the stopping rule) inflates family size; the dowry-and-inheritance economics beneath it.3. Extended family and dependency norms — children as old-age security (the social-security substitute that pensions would replace).4. Women's status — education and autonomy as fertility's best predictors (the education- fertility inverse gradient everywhere observed).5. Festivals and settlement — the cultural calendar and the tol (neighbourhood) structuring urban density.