The Crude Birth Rates and Crude Death Rates - Essay Example

The Crude Birth Rates (CBR) and Crude Death Rates (CDR) Demographic Transition (DT) Demographic transition is referred to the shift of death rates followed by birth rates in a population of a particular country. It seeks to explain the countries’ transformation from having high rates of birth and deaths to low rates of birth and death. This transition in the developed countries began back in the eighteenth century while in the less developed countries, it began later and the model is still in its earlier stages. Crude birth rate and crude death rate is the base line for the demographic transition and it is usually expressed per a thousand populations (Galor, 2005). The crude birth rate is determined in the country by taking the number of births in one year and then dividing by the population of the country and multiplied by 1000. Similarly, the crude death rate is determined in the same way. The word crude is used to mean that sex or age differences are not taken into account among the population that means that the birth rates and death rates are high. In the stage 1 of the demographic transition, there tend to be a low growth of the population or almost no natural rate increase at all. In the fourth stage, the population growth is much higher. In a hypothetical country, the rate of birth is 15 for every 1000 people. The likelihood of this population is that approximately 500 of 1000 people are men other 500 are women and those who are capable of giving birth are only a certain percentage (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2007). The crude birth rate is considered low if there, are18 per 1000 people while when there is more than 30 per 1000 people it is considered as high. The crude birth rate globally was 20.15 per 1000 that was slightly high. Reasons for the high death rates may include unstable political society and, therefore, civil unrest is possible. Also for the country where subsistence economy is, being relied upon the food supply may be unreliable. Unclean water or very little social and medicinal care, diseases and pests may also have a dramatic effect on the population (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2007). According to Galor (2005), high birth rate, on the other hand, can be a natural consequence of high rate of deaths. Large families may be a perception to compensate for the large infant mortality rate and therefore children work in supporting the families especially the parents in their old age. Men tend to be seen powerful in having many children among the cultural and religion parts of large families. In modern urban or agricultural society, the time that a woman is expected to breastfeed is likely to be less and, therefore, the interval of pregnancy is shorter. In the absence of breastfeeding, the fertility rate can increase to 10 and even more children. The pregnancy interval in the case of abortion is greatly reduced. Several abortions can be done in the time it takes a woman to conceive, carry and breastfeed one baby. In the developed countries, the transitions took around 100 years and were classically attributed to an improvement in socio-economic conditions, which changed the survival rate of children and fertility preferences. The demographic transition since 1960, in SOME developing countries, it has occurred much more rapidly than in the countries that are more developed (Galor, 2005). For example, this transition in Bangladesh, it occurred in a span of 10 years. Furthermore, the birth rates have fallen in Bangladesh, without the simultaneous socio-economic improvement. In many of the demographic transitions the development of socio-economic factors were associated such as low child mortality, industrialized job opportunities, high education levels and high urbanization. The wealth families tend to have fewer children than the poor families. Well-educated families usually have fewer numbers of children while the less educated families tend to have many children. In the first stage period, hunting and gathering is what people depended on for food. The population of the region increased when the food was easily available and obtained while the population declined when it was not possible to obtain or locate enough vegetation and animals in the nearby region. The agricultural revolution causes the burst of population growth that is usually demonstrated by human beings relying on plants and animals and no longer relied on gathering and hunting (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2007). Human beings created more stable and longer sources by the growing more plants and raising animals, therefore, survival of people become possible. However, despite this agricultural revolution the population of human in stage 1 of the demographic transition could remain because of the unpredictability of food supply. Farmers prospered in the regions where harvests were abundant leading to the expansion in the population, but when the climatic conditions were not favorable, there was low food production and as a result, crude death rate would soar. Diseases and war also played their roles in stage 1 of the demographic transition (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2007). In stage 4 of the demographic transition where the crude birth rate declines to the point of being to the crude death rate and the population growth rate approaches zero. This is called zero population growth. This occurs when some of the females die before they have reached their child-bearing years and those that are in their child bearing years could vary. Most of the European countries are in this stage of the demographic transition as their female fertility rate is well below the zero population growth. The movement of demographic transition from one stage to the next is again explained by the social customs. Most families who lived on farms, child rearing and employment, were conducted at the same place. In urban societies, most of the parents left home to go to the work place in office, factories or shop. This encouraged someone to be employed for the caring of the children apart from the parent (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2007). These changes in lifestyle have encouraged smaller families compared to the conservative lifestyles. Also in urban societies, people have a close access to a wider variety of birth control methods and, therefore, they are most likely going to use some of them. Increased income and leisure time increases the possibilities of participation in recreation activities and entertainment. High death rate and low birth rates in the Eastern Europe are legacies of communist of a half century. Inadequate pollution controls in the countries experiencing stage 4 has resulted to the high death rates. In conclusion, most countries and the word have unprecedentedly rapid change period. There is a huge expansion of human numbers. The lifestyle change in the modern society has led and contributed to the change in the demographic transition. Reference Galor, O. (2005b) The demographic transition and the emergence of sustained economic growth. J Eur Econ Assoc 3:494–504 Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. (2007) Disease and development: the effect of life expectancy on economic growth. J Polit Econ 115(6):925–985 Read More