Dec 10 2010
The Demographic Transition
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*Note: This is a cross post done by ConnerV in the other class with minor adjustments by Mr. W (in parentheses).
Today in class we talked about the Demographic Transition. We used this model to discuss how countries change over time to fit our four stages.
The four stages were:
- Pre-Industrial: Countries without industry. Usually don’t have a centralized gov’t system (usually tribal). We didn’t find many (if any) countries that fit this stage.
- Transitional: These countries are in the transition stage between Pre and Industrialized nations. They are characterized by high birth rates, and high death rates that decrease over time. These death rates decrease over time because the country starts to gain the ability to defeat death through medical advancement (anti-biotics and vaccinations) as well as sanitation and readily accessible food resources. Countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia fit this model (as early stage 2 countries rapid growth as they have high infant mortality rates still).
- Industrial: This stage describes nations who have low death rates and birth rates that are lowering towards 0% population growth, but aren’t quite their yet. Countries like China and India fit this stage (just entering stage 3, but also USA, Canada, and Australia at the end of the stage).
- Post-Industrial: This stage describes countries that have low death rates, high life expectancy, and an AGR of zero or even negative %. Germany and Japan fit this model (note the USA may be on the verge of entering it as our population growth stabilizes near ZPG).
Classifying Population Pyramids by Demographic Stage
