Many children die in infancy and people tend to produce more children to counter the deaths .Family planning methods are not applied in these society due to lack of knowledge ad a growing need for children to labour and help the families most of which are subsistence farmers.In most of these societies children are highly regarded and larger families are encouraged as in Catholics,Hindus and Muslims.Births are therefore as high as the deaths and the population hardly increases and an example of such countries would be Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
In the second stage of the model,birth rates remain high but death rates fluctuate due to better surviving skills,improved medical care,new drugs, scientific advancement, improved sanitation, improved transport network and a decrease in child mortality.The situation is typical of countries that have come out of war and investment is coming into the country thereby improving medical infrastructure,road networks and overall living conditions in a country.Peru, Sri Lanka and Kenya are represented in this stage.
Stage three shows a decrease in birth rates due to effective family planning methods and improved contraception methods such as sterilisation, abortion and government intervention. The government intervenes by way of introducing incentives for having smaller families or for people who give up their right to producing children through sterilisation and abortions. People now have children based on their income and desire for material things where an increased desire for material things surpasses the need to have children. Some people are too busy with careers and making money and having babies would therefore be a hindrance to their cause for example, Cuba, China and Australia.The population decreases as the birth rates lower.
In the fourth stage both birth and death rates are fluctuate and thereby giving a much stable population growth typical of most economically developed countries like Canada, Japan and USA.
The model is however Eurocentric and an assumption of what a population pattern should be due to past experience. However country populations are not predictable and vary with time due to differing circumstances and fate which is not foreseen. The model assumed that most countries will go through all stages in the given order and yet countries are faced with different circumstances and deal with the problems they face in varying ways. Populations are thereby not as predictable as the model suggests and thus the model may be a misrepresentation of some countries' population and the reasons for the given population changes.
The model being a prediction of things to come failed in the time that the predicted period came to being. Stage two of the model suggested that the decrease in death rate was due to industrialisation whereas it was due to insanitary conditions which resulted from urbanisation. The system overlooks some factors such as the expense of drugs which could delay the fall in death rates.
The timescale of the model was miscalculated as most South East Asian countries develop faster faster than the early industrialised countries. The model is biased to the European countries and denounces any technological advancement in non European countries. The model suggests centralised development and that it begins in European countries and that the rest of the world will follow through the same pattern.
The demographic transition model like all models has its limitations and though not fully accurate, it can be used to show the population of a country within a period of time. It becomes more accurate when it is limited to a single country and the population trends are closely monitored and not a mere generalisation of facts. Instead of being used as a future pattern growth it could be used to compare the rates of growth between countries at a given point and time thereby giving truthful facts and figures which are more accurate and not fictional.
The model however helps to plan for the future and help countries cope with future disasters by trying to predict and curb future tragedies . An analysis of such scale helps to understand the present by studying patterns of the past and it in helping to foretell the future. Studying population in its different aspects that is future, past and present can help to stabilise a country and improve situations as they occur.