Demography is the study of trends in human population growth. Changes in human population can be established through observing time or space. Human population changes in response to several factors, which include birth and death rates, migration, aging, and death rates. These very crucial dynamics are used to establish human population patterns. To understand demography, it is important to define the term, which is made up of two words, ‘Demo’ and ‘Graphy’. Demo means people while ‘graphy’ means measurement, hence measurement of people (Knox, et al). The analysis of human population can be done using groupings as a criterion. Such groups can be defined through different criteria including education, nationality, religion and ethnicity. This paper will be looking at demographic transition over time and space to identify how these two factors affect population. The paper will also show how economic and political stability relates to the population.
The level of economic development has a direct impact on the factors that contribute to changes in the population. The changes in population can be either an increase or a decrease depending on the rates of birth and death. Economic development entails quite a number of changes that can be attributed to birth and death rates. High birth rates indicate that more women are, getting pregnant, carrying their babies to term and having a successful delivery. Economic development and stability causes the population to engage in social activities and with the economic power to bring up children, the rate of birth may increase. However, this is only one side of the coin. There is a different twist to the same situation whereby the increase in economic activities can lead to very low birth rates. In the developed world where economic stability is at its highest level, the birth rate is not as high as in some of the Low Developed Countries ‘LDCs’ (Knox, et al).
Measuring the demographic transition over time and space is done by determining the Crude Birth Rate ‘CBR’ and Crude Death Rate ‘CDR’ (Knox, et al). This refers to the number of births or deaths registered per thousand of population per year (Knox, et al). This model of demography suggests that when the CBR equals the CDR, then the population is said to be on equilibrium. This means that the population remains constant since the number of children being born equally replaces the number of people dying. At this level, other factors play an important role to establish this balance such as economic stability. With a sound economic backup, the underlying implications include improvement of the Medicare consequently improving life expectancy. Improved medical services improve the chances of successful birth hence again improving the population growth. In relation to the transition over time and space, economic development takes time to be realized. The developed countries are said to have just gone through their demographic transitions in the 19th and 20th centuries (Knox, et al).
The world industrial revolution was a major boost to the transition although it also took time before the changes were realized. The demographic transition theory maintains that before the industrial revolution life expectancy was very low owing to the poor nutrition, poor Medicare services, unreliable food supply as well as poor sanitation (Knox, et al). During the industrial revolution period, the population took a different turn as new inventions improved life expectancy. Increased technology in medical services and the development as social security systems were developed to support and care for the elderly (Knox, et al). The reduced infant mortality rate also plays a very crucial role in stabilizing the population. Improved nutrition after the industrial revolution further improved the life expectancy in the western countries hence enhancing population growth.
However, over time, the birth rate began to decrease in the western countries based on different factors. The demographic theory holds that the increased wealth led to low birth rates as children were seen as inferior goods (Knox, et al). Other factors that led to low birth rates include the delayed stages of marriage influenced by the high number of women joining universities and tertiary colleges (Knox, et al). Women’s education reduces the rate of births as young productive women spend too much time studying. All these factors reduce the rate of birth although the death rate does not change since there is an increase in the level of life expectancy. Therefore, the population is quite equalized with low birth and death rates.
The demographic transition was developed based on the industrial revolution in the western world although the model faces quite a surmountable criticism. One of the striking inconsistencies of the theory is the fact that Europe took several centuries to go through the transition while today the Low Developed Countries are experiencing a more rapid transition (Knox, et al). A practical case is the case of Sri Lanka which is a Low developed country. The country experienced a drop in death rate from 48/1000 to 28/1000 within a period of two years (Knox, et al). This paper has shown how demographic transition works and has discussed the impacts of economic development on changes in population.
Works Cited
Knox, P.L., et al. Human Geography 4th Cdn, Ed. Canada, CA: Pearson, 2013. Print.