Differences in rate of Population Change between Countries

There are currently differences in the rate of population change between countries because each country is at its own stage in the demographic transition model. Most of the developed countries i.e. United Kingdom or United states are currently at stage 4 of the model, where the population is growing at a steady rate up to 0.9%. Whereas Developing countries like Ghana have a very high population increase. This is because it is entering into stage 2 of the model where there is very high birth rate. There are also other factors like the current state of the government that affect the rate of population. A government that can provide good health care and lots of family planning clinics will have a lower population increase than one that can’t provide the same. People are also more reluctant to bring there children into the world if they feel they will suffer later on in life and vice versa, people would rather bring there children into the world in areas where they believe they will have a good life. The guarantee of a job also increases the rate of population increase as people who believe the will have a job for life feel they will be able to provide for there children.

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Italy has a population loss because its population are aging. It has entered into stage 5 of the model where the death rate has increased over the birth rate. This has happened because woman in Italy have become more aware of family planning giving them the ability to decide when they would like there children, and how many they want. They have also become more career minded and therefore want less children at a later stage in their life. The average age for the first-time mother is over 27. Even with the massive following of their catholic religion which forbids the use of contraception, the fertility rate of 1.2 per woman is one of the worlds lowest, far lower than 2.1 children which are needed for population replacement in a country. Projections into the future population of Italy show its population will drop from 57million to 51million by 2025.

Russia has also entered into stage 5 of the model, but for totally different reasons from Italy. Death rates continue to outplace births, with the birth rate since 1985 almost halving. This is believed to be Russian Woman who do not want to bring children into a country in such difficult circumstances. There are twice as many abortions as live births. Since the end of communism in 1991, the male life expectancy has dropped by 6 years, one of the sharpest declines known in any industrial society. The death rate and diving life expectancy were blamed on poverty, political upheaval, loss of guaranteed state employment and ‘binge-drinking’. People could not survive; many people lost jobs they had expected to keep for life. Life expectancy only began to rise again in 1995, largely because the weakest two million people, who could not adapt to the changes, had died.

However Ghana is currently moving through stage 2-3 in the model. It has a very young population with one in five currently younger than 5, half under 15 and almost two thirds younger than 25. Currently the fertility rate is 4.4 children but as the mortality rate drops it is leaving many more children being born. The current national plan is to reduce this figure to 4.0 by 2003 and then to bring it down to 3.5 as fast as possible. This can only be done by educating people and teaching the use of contraception to as many people as possible. The culture in the countryside, where 70 per cent of the people live, is still to see children as assets, conferring status, wealth and recognition.

The USA has the highest rate of population increase for MEDCs. This is because there are very good services for birth control and health. People in the USA are very rich, with a stable government which has a lot of influence on the rest of the world. Since they have plenty of money most families decided to have more than two children as they can provide for them. They can also rely on there jobs as there isn’t civil unrest within the government. There is also less to put mothers off bring there children into the world in the USA, as there are no major threats to there way of life.

Pop. Pressure & Resource Management