The demographic transition transformation is a theory which

. The demographic transition (transformation) is a theory which explains population growth patterns. Describe each stage and evaluate whether this is a good model to be used for all countries in the world.

Solution

Demographic transition model has five stages:

1. HIGH STATIONARY STAGE (PRE MODERN STAGE): This is a stage which witness high birth rate and high death rate. High death rate due to poor medical facility, high infant mortality, prevalence of famine poverty and poor nutrition. This encourages high birth rate to make sure at the end parents have enough children to support their family. It also becomes economically beneficial to have more children as they are seen as source of future income. OVER ALL POPULATION GROWTH IS SMALL BECAUSE HIGH BIRTH RATE IS MATCHED WITH HIGH DEATH RATE.

2. EARLY EXPANDING STAGE (URBANIZING STAGE): This stage experiences high birth rate but slowing death rate because with development comes better medical facility, low infant mortality and better nutrition causing overall population to expand rapidly.

3. FALLING BIRTH RATE AND DEATH RATE (MATURE INDUSTRIAL STAGE) : this stage shows falling birth rate due to desire for smaller family, changing lifestyle (both parents work and no one is there to take care of kids at home), rising expenses to nurture kids etc.

4. LOW BIRTH AND LOW DEATH RATE (POST INDUSTRIAL STAGE): The fertility continues to fall and participation of more women into the workforce causes women to bear less chiildren. Population growth slows down to replacement level and in some countries it even falls below replacement level.

The advantage of this model is that it is time independent in the sense that different countries experince different stages of demographic transitionbut ultimately reaches the final stage i.e. 4th stage (Japan is the right example of fourth stage) where as India is in the third stage of demographic transition.

It helps in government policy making as per thier stage of demographic transition. Countries in the first stage should focus more on providing medical facility and policies should be made to curb infant mortality. Whereas countries like Japan and Canada should encourage public to have more children.

It fits the population growth of many countries but exaples are there which shows varying movement in population at different stages of population growth.