Describe how the total population changes throughout the different stages of the demographic transition model

by hannahperera (student)

Describe how the total population changes throughout the different stages of the demographic transition model (6 marks)

In stage one we can see that the total population is very low of around five million and this is due to high death rates, low life expectancy and high infant mortality rates. The birth rate is also very high however the number of people dying is obviously slightly quicker or more prolific than birth rates. The low infant mortality rates which affect total population are because the children are sent to work at a very young age to support their families and this can cause life threatening illnesses as the stress maybe to much for the infant to bear. The places in stage one are likely to be remote communities which survive in a sustainable way and live off the land mostly forcing more physical hard labour work.

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Stages 2 and 3 are slightly more developed probably because there are more people and slightly more advances in something like technologies or services. However these countries still show that there is a severe lack of control over population. There is a rapid rise in the total population from six to twenty million that is a difference of fourteen million people in stage two. In stage three the stage that represents an NIC(Newly industrialised country) as the total population is still rising rapidly as birth rates fall rapidly and death rates fall more slowly. This shows the development of services and care for the population but are is still a high death and birth rate of from thirty eight to thirty eight which shows that birth rate stays the approximately same in stage two. However death rate starts to decrease rapidly from around thirty seven to fifteen this is a difference of twenty two and in stage three there is a much smaller difference of five as death starts from fifteen million to ten million . This is why total population increases because there is a higher number of people that are being born than there is dying therefore the population will increase.

Stage four and five displays how most developed countries population structure of the present day. As the total population peaks at its highest of forty then slowly starts to fall in stage five which shows a declining population like Italy and Britain. In stage four the birth rates and death rates fall and eventually become equal at the end of stage four at around five million. The natural increase is stable in stage four and in stage five there is a slow decrease. The total population starts off at approximately thirty five million and then peaks at forty million and then in stage five decreases back to around thirty five million again.

Overall through the first four stages the total population increases until the newly added stage five which shows a rapid decrease. Both death and birth rates fall rapidly from the start of stage three.