To Have More Kids...

Here's a tip:

To have the most children, men should find a partner six years younger and women a mate four years older, Austrian researchers said on Wednesday.

While it is no surprise to hear that men pick younger women to bolster their reproductive fitness and that women choose older partners for security, the study is the first to quantify the age difference that results in the most children.....

For both men and women, having a partner of the optimal age meant having an average of 2.2 children compared with 2.1 children when they picked partners of the same age -- a significant number in evolutionary terms that accumulates over time, Fieder said.

The findings are the result of a statistical analysis and do not mean that every man can find a woman six years younger and that every women would find a man four years older.

[Reuters, 28 Aug 2007]

I think this finding applies only to couples who have financial capability to raise more children. In our local scene, majority do not have a problem on having more children. Overpopulation and poverty are the bigger problems here. But the study might interest middle-class men and women who are having difficulties on how to have more kids with their advancing age.