Fertility:
- Crude birth rate doesn’t take gender or age into
account, so is heavily influenced by age structure of a
population.
- More accurate measures are fertility rate (annual live
births per 1000 women aged 15-49) and total fertility
rate (avg. no. of children born alive to a woman during
her lifetime, if she passed through child-bearing years
conforming to age-specific fertility rates of a given year).
- Factors affecting fertility:
o Infant mortality rates.
o In some societies (esp. in Africa), tradition demands
high rates of reproduction.
o Education (esp. female literacy).
o Religion.
o In many LICs children seen as economic asset, while
perception is reversed in HICs (cost of child
dependency years).
o Governments may attempt to change rate of pop.
growth for economic and strategic reasons.
- Replacement level-fertility is 2.1 children per woman.
- E.g. in Kerala, female literacy rate of 92% (50% across
India), avg. age of marriage 21 (17 across India), IMR of
12 (50 in India).
o Lower fertility rates and reduction in IMR /
maternal mortality.
o Improvements in child nutrition & health.
, o Enhanced female political participation.
o Women educated about contraception and where
to obtain it, reducing risk of STIs.
o Opens up greater career opportunities for women,
making them less likely to want children early or
even at all (+ the domestic lifestyle that comes with
raising children). Increased female income, giving
them further agency.
Mortality:
Crude death rate also heavily influenced by age
structure of a population.
Infant mortality rate and life expectancy are more
accurate measures of mortality.
In LICs, infectious diseases are main cause of death
(communicable diseases can spread rapidly when ppl
live in overcrowded & insanitary conditions, combined
with limited access to healthcare and medicines). Poor
nutrition and deficient immune systems also contribute
to risk.
In HICs, heart disease and cancer are main killers.
IMR often considered as most sensitive indicator of
socio-economic progress, since it is heavily influenced by
fundamental improvements in q. of l. factors like water
supply, nutrition and healthcare.
- Crude birth rate doesn’t take gender or age into
account, so is heavily influenced by age structure of a
population.
- More accurate measures are fertility rate (annual live
births per 1000 women aged 15-49) and total fertility
rate (avg. no. of children born alive to a woman during
her lifetime, if she passed through child-bearing years
conforming to age-specific fertility rates of a given year).
- Factors affecting fertility:
o Infant mortality rates.
o In some societies (esp. in Africa), tradition demands
high rates of reproduction.
o Education (esp. female literacy).
o Religion.
o In many LICs children seen as economic asset, while
perception is reversed in HICs (cost of child
dependency years).
o Governments may attempt to change rate of pop.
growth for economic and strategic reasons.
- Replacement level-fertility is 2.1 children per woman.
- E.g. in Kerala, female literacy rate of 92% (50% across
India), avg. age of marriage 21 (17 across India), IMR of
12 (50 in India).
o Lower fertility rates and reduction in IMR /
maternal mortality.
o Improvements in child nutrition & health.
, o Enhanced female political participation.
o Women educated about contraception and where
to obtain it, reducing risk of STIs.
o Opens up greater career opportunities for women,
making them less likely to want children early or
even at all (+ the domestic lifestyle that comes with
raising children). Increased female income, giving
them further agency.
Mortality:
Crude death rate also heavily influenced by age
structure of a population.
Infant mortality rate and life expectancy are more
accurate measures of mortality.
In LICs, infectious diseases are main cause of death
(communicable diseases can spread rapidly when ppl
live in overcrowded & insanitary conditions, combined
with limited access to healthcare and medicines). Poor
nutrition and deficient immune systems also contribute
to risk.
In HICs, heart disease and cancer are main killers.
IMR often considered as most sensitive indicator of
socio-economic progress, since it is heavily influenced by
fundamental improvements in q. of l. factors like water
supply, nutrition and healthcare.
