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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CF07" data-source="post: 9726623" data-attributes="member: 7052262">Well there are a lot of things that could account for the difference. Humans may have a much higher fertility rate overall and be willing to allow for more child mortality compared to elves and dwarves, who put in way more investment into their children. (I'm thinking of R vs. K selection and post-agricultural demographic transition, where children have switched from being economically valuable to being a cost.) If you want some kind of magical or divine explanation, it's possible that the God of Fertility is human. (Or whatever.) For Tolkien, who evidently thought a good bit about this (because of course he did), elves had a few children early in their life cycle and then basically called it a day on reproduction. Same for dwarves, many of whom were bachelors much more obsessed with crafting and gold than shagging.</blockquote>