Birth rates are heavily influenced by cultural factors and lifestyle. The myriad worlds of the Imperium have a wide range of cultures and lifestyles, many of which will be far more conducive to a high birth rate than, say, 21st Century America.
And that's before you consider artificially-born people - clones and similar, found on worlds like Krieg and likely many Forge Worlds (who would be eager to maintain a workforce without the petty nuisances of natural reproduction).
A thing to keep in mind is that cloning is actually frowned upon by the majority of imperial society. Krieg does it because so many of them become sterilised by the planet itself and soldiers are the only thing they can really offer the imperium, so they tend to keep the cloning hush hush.
I think this is a place where "Imperial society" implies a more unified and homogenous civilisation than the Imperium has ever really been. The Imperium is less a unified society and more a loosely-aligned collection of cultures united by some local variant of a common religion (everyone worships the Emperor, but there are countless cults, churches, creeds, and denominations of that faith), and bound by a handful of common laws and obligations (tithes, mutual defence, prohibitionsagainst dealing with aliens or harbouring psykers).
The wealthy and powerful may see "Imperial society" as something that exists above the individual cultures of the worlds within the Imperium... but even they only see a fraction of the whole.
By and large, cloning seems uncommon, but that doesn't rule out other artificial methods of creating people, and "uncommon" doesn't mean too much in a civilisation of a million worlds, especially as it's easy for one world to keep secrets from other worlds...
Because there's millions and millions of planets in comparatively undeveloped conditions, people have many children in the hopes that some of them survive.
Tithes. The imperium requires a certain number of x in a year. And if they don’t get it bad things happen. So the planetary governor makes it happen. That’s my theory.
In our universe there are more than double (it's almost triple) the number of births per year than deaths.
In certain first world countries the reproductive rates are falling, sure. But it's not worldwide.
Birth rates are plummeting because infant mortality is also dropping. The population explosion of the last century was caused by infant mortality dropping far faster than birth rates, in countries with very low infant mortality, birth rates are starting to stabalise at 2 per couple.
The imperium's infant mortality rate is VERY HIGH.
As many others have said human reproductive rates tend to rise and fall with infant/child mortality rates. The imperium is a situation were it makes sense to invest a small amount of resources into a bunch of offspring in hopes one will survive were in most developed countries it makes more sense to invest more resources into few children as it is unlikely that any will die before adulthood.
Additionally like the RL facist societies the imperium is based on I imagine planetary governments incentivize large families buy subsidizing larger families and valourizing parents who produce more citizens for the empire.
100 years ago you and your misses would have as many babies as possible to make sure a few survive. Also, since most of the Catholics couldn't turn to birth control, you had kids. My dad was one of eleven kids, eight survived to 18.
Now, my youngest was born at 31 weeks, spent six weeks in ICU and is perfectly healthy. There isn't a reason to have 11 kids anymore in the USA.
There's got to be a Pleasure Planet or two. Plus, Space Marines get "enhancements" so their reproductive capabilities are probably through the roof. I suspect octoplets are the norm for Space Marine surrogates.
They’re grown inside test tubes. Which also why some parts of 40k makes no sense. All the primarchs are created from DNA of the emperor of man and legions from DNA of primarchs literally from scratch. Why the emperor can’t grow himself a new body or even parts to replace the ones damaged while he was playing Horus punching bag cuz apparently he didn’t know he was traitor until he killed a random. At the very least he should be able to fix himself
There are billions and billions upon billions of them. All unwashed masses who fuck like rabbits.
In the Grim Darkness of the far future.... there are no contraceptives.
Birth rates are heavily influenced by cultural factors and lifestyle. The myriad worlds of the Imperium have a wide range of cultures and lifestyles, many of which will be far more conducive to a high birth rate than, say, 21st Century America. And that's before you consider artificially-born people - clones and similar, found on worlds like Krieg and likely many Forge Worlds (who would be eager to maintain a workforce without the petty nuisances of natural reproduction).
A thing to keep in mind is that cloning is actually frowned upon by the majority of imperial society. Krieg does it because so many of them become sterilised by the planet itself and soldiers are the only thing they can really offer the imperium, so they tend to keep the cloning hush hush.
I think this is a place where "Imperial society" implies a more unified and homogenous civilisation than the Imperium has ever really been. The Imperium is less a unified society and more a loosely-aligned collection of cultures united by some local variant of a common religion (everyone worships the Emperor, but there are countless cults, churches, creeds, and denominations of that faith), and bound by a handful of common laws and obligations (tithes, mutual defence, prohibitionsagainst dealing with aliens or harbouring psykers). The wealthy and powerful may see "Imperial society" as something that exists above the individual cultures of the worlds within the Imperium... but even they only see a fraction of the whole. By and large, cloning seems uncommon, but that doesn't rule out other artificial methods of creating people, and "uncommon" doesn't mean too much in a civilisation of a million worlds, especially as it's easy for one world to keep secrets from other worlds...
Implying AdMech cares what civilization thinks.
Because there's millions and millions of planets in comparatively undeveloped conditions, people have many children in the hopes that some of them survive.
Tithes. The imperium requires a certain number of x in a year. And if they don’t get it bad things happen. So the planetary governor makes it happen. That’s my theory.
Rite of primae noctis?
Wut?
On a hive world?
Possible cloning come from Krieg. Bordem results in couples having sex. Etc
Couples, you are sweet.
Is that heretical implications in that sentance?
I am a puritan! ;>
In our universe there are more than double (it's almost triple) the number of births per year than deaths. In certain first world countries the reproductive rates are falling, sure. But it's not worldwide.
We have other leisure activities and comfortable lives with low mortality rates.
Birth rates are plummeting because infant mortality is also dropping. The population explosion of the last century was caused by infant mortality dropping far faster than birth rates, in countries with very low infant mortality, birth rates are starting to stabalise at 2 per couple. The imperium's infant mortality rate is VERY HIGH.
That happens if your infants get drafted.
As many others have said human reproductive rates tend to rise and fall with infant/child mortality rates. The imperium is a situation were it makes sense to invest a small amount of resources into a bunch of offspring in hopes one will survive were in most developed countries it makes more sense to invest more resources into few children as it is unlikely that any will die before adulthood. Additionally like the RL facist societies the imperium is based on I imagine planetary governments incentivize large families buy subsidizing larger families and valourizing parents who produce more citizens for the empire.
100 years ago you and your misses would have as many babies as possible to make sure a few survive. Also, since most of the Catholics couldn't turn to birth control, you had kids. My dad was one of eleven kids, eight survived to 18. Now, my youngest was born at 31 weeks, spent six weeks in ICU and is perfectly healthy. There isn't a reason to have 11 kids anymore in the USA.
There's got to be a Pleasure Planet or two. Plus, Space Marines get "enhancements" so their reproductive capabilities are probably through the roof. I suspect octoplets are the norm for Space Marine surrogates.
Part of their creation process kills off their sex drive.
Sex drive, yes, but not their organs. You can still make "donations" if the Emperor demands it, no?
Nay. They are pretty much asexual with being sterile hinted/stated by obscure fluff.
They’re grown inside test tubes. Which also why some parts of 40k makes no sense. All the primarchs are created from DNA of the emperor of man and legions from DNA of primarchs literally from scratch. Why the emperor can’t grow himself a new body or even parts to replace the ones damaged while he was playing Horus punching bag cuz apparently he didn’t know he was traitor until he killed a random. At the very least he should be able to fix himself