Medical
- Improvements in medical care; In HICs new treatments, such as medicines to combat cancer, are continually being invented to combat diseases, which lead to longer lives and decrease in infant mortality rate.
- There are now vaccinations for young children
Economic
- It is now very costly to bring up a child in the UK. Increasingly in HICs couples do not want to change their lifestyle in order to have children. A typical family now pays an average of £186,032 to raise a child from birth to the age of 21.
- Death rate in UK is strongly affected by poverty. Most of the areas with high death rates are classified as manufacturing centres, coalfields or ports, all areas with high unemployment.
Social
-
Educating women provides them with information on ways to control fertility. It also increases the time they spend in school and in further education; this leads to a greater chance of full-time careers, as education opens their eyes to life outside of the home.
It also stimulates their curiosity so that they become easily bored at home. Consequently it is likely to raise the average age of marriage and delays their child bearing age.
-
People are now marrying later in life and the average age has gone up from 24 in 1960 to 30 in 2010.
-
Some religions such as Islam and Catholicism do not allow birth control which will generally lead to a higher birth rate.
Political
- Some countries such as China and India have attempted to decrease birth rates through the introduction of family planning programmes.
- Other countries, such as France and Singapore are giving incentives to increase birth rate because they are worried that the country is getting an ageing population and will not have a large enough workforce for economic growth in the future. As there will not be a large enough working population to support the dependent population, taxes will have to rise and pension entitlements fall.
Decrease in birth rates in Poland:
- In Poland the birth rate is just 1.23, one of the lowest in Europe. The country’s population actually fell by 500,000 between 2000 and 2008. Estimates suggest there will be 4 million fewer poles by 2030.
- In Poland, it is because Polish society has undergone considerable changes in recent decades. First, more and more young people, especially women, are going to college and university.
- Women want to get a job and career first so they’re not dependent on their husbands when they get married.
- Another dramatic change came with the transition from communism to a market-based economy. Under communism unemployment officially didn’t exist. Now at 18% it is the highest in the EU. This means there are concerns about getting and keeping a job. Couples are not prepared to have children if they do not have financial security.
- As well as concerns about job security, there is a housing shortage and many young people live with their parents because they cannot afford a flat. The cost of raising a family is also increasing. Many couples are not prepared to economise on things like food and holidays in order to afford having children.
- Another reason why women are reluctant to break their career to start a family is because they fear they won’t be able to get their jobs back after taking maternity leave.
- The government has promised to build more flats for first-time buyers and introduce family-oriented legislation, which will include extending maternity leave by 2 weeks and improving public kindergartens. To encourage people to have more children the government has introduced a new law which pays couples a ‘baby bonuses’ for each child they have, amounting to 1,000 zloty which is £225.
Demographic Transition model
Stage 1: Amazon tribes
- High Birth and Death Rates
- Reasons for the high birth rate include:
- Little or no birth control
- Because many children die in infancy (high infant mortality), parents tend to have more children to compensate in the hope that some will survive
- Children are seen as an asset and status symbol in some cultures
- Religious beliefs (e.g Roman Catholics and Hindus) that encourage large families
- Children are needed to work on the land to grow food for the family
-Reasons for the high death include:
- Death rates, especially among children, are high because of disease, famine, poor diet, poor hygiene, and little medical science.
Stage 2: Poor LICs, e.g. Mali
High birth rates, but falling death rates
Falling death include:
- Improvements in medical care, which have led to longer lives and a decrease in infant mortality
- Improvements in sanitation and water supply
- The quality and quantity of food produced improves
- Transport and communications improve the moments of food and medical supplies
Stage 3: Developing LICs, e.g. Taiwan
Falling birth rates and death rates
- Industrialisation and mechanisation means fewer labourers are required
- Increased access to contraception
- Lower infant mortality rates means there is less need to have a bigger family
- As wealth increases, the desire for material possessions takes over the desire for large families. Equality for women means that they are able to follow a career rather than being pressurised into having a family.
Stage 4: HICs, e.g. UK
Birth rates and death rates remain low, fluctuating with ‘baby booms’ and epidemics of illnesses and diseases.
- Effective birth control
- More working women delaying the age at which they start having a family
Stage 5: Germany and Estonia
The death rate is higher than the birth rate. The result is natural decrease and a decline in population. The population becomes even ‘greyer’. Modern medicine is keeping elderly people alive longer. Fewer people in the reproductive age range (15-50) means a lower birth rate.
The Demographic Transition model is a generalisation, not all countries will follow the same pathway and countries that do appear to follow the transition will do so at different speeds – some much faster than others. The important factor is the speed of development.
What are the physical and human factors affecting the distribution and density of population in China and the UK?
Physical factors: relief, climate and water supply.
Human factors: employment, industry and transport
Physical
The sparsely populated areas are in the west of the country; the mountains over 2000m, for example the Atai Mountains and the Tibet plateau, and the desert areas, for example the Gobi and Takla deserts. They all have a population density of less than 10 people per square kilometre.
The most densely populated areas are coastal areas and the fertile floodplains of the major rivers, like the Yangtze, found in the east of the country.
Climate is another important physical factor which affects the density of population. The climate of China is very diverse, from arid to monsoonal. Large cities like Beijing and Shanghai do not get extreme climates and is one reason for their continued growth.
There are no large settlements in the arid desert areas or the very wet and cold mountains.
Human
In China the richer areas that have more industry also have higher population densities. These areas are accessible with good communication links which has encouraged the growth of industry and population.
In the 1970s the Chinese government introduced a strategy for coastal economic development. This led to rapid economic development along the south-east coastal area, which drew in workers, making it now the most densely populated region based around Shanghai.
The densely populated major ports are situated on the coast where they trade with the rest of the world. They are centres of industry.
The density of population in the UK
