Demographic Transition Model Essay

Why are the following countries at different stages of the Demographic Transition Model? • • • • •

Amazon Rainforest in Brazil Tanzania Kerala in Southern India England Japan

There are several factors that determine at what stage a place is on the Demographic Transition Model. However, it is mainly due to whether the place in question is an economically developed country or not. More economically developed countries will be at another stage to a less economically developed country. The Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is at stage one of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) meaning that birth and death rates are high. Stage one of the DTM, shows a consistent fluctuation in birth and death rates, unlike stage 3 for example, which shows a significant decrease in birth rates, this is where England or Japan is on the DTM. People who are living in remote areas of Brazil such as the Amazon Rainforest are not coming in contact with the modern world. Therefore, they are not aware of healthier sanitation or improved medicine that society has come across. This means that these small communities have a shorter life expectancy because they can easily contract disease such as the Bubonic plague and cholera, which are not so common in MEDC’s because vaccinations are available. Additionally, famine and under nourishment contribute to the high death rates because families cannot afford to buy food. There is also a lack of clean water and sewerage facilities meaning water borne diseases can easily be contracted from the dirty rivers and lakes. The lack of medical care is also a primary factor in why the death rates in Brazil are so high. The birth rates are so high because families in the Amazon Rainforest tend to have a lot of children to help work on the land and to carry extra food and water for the family. When the parents contract a disease or get to old to work, then the children have to work full-time to provide for the family. It is also due to the death rate being so high, that families are having so many children. Numerous children catch disease when they are very young, killing them when they are just babies. Families in Brazil have a lot of children to make up for this. Having a lot of children also increase a person’s importance in the village and makes the family more prominent. People living in the Amazon are often from tribes that forbid contraception. The main reason for a family to have a lot of children is so that they can work and create a stable income for the family. I think that the Amazon rainforest will soon move on to the second stage of the DTM. The birth rates will still be high because the families will still need workers but death rates will decrease slightly because sanitation and medical care will begin to steadily improve. Stage 2 of the DTM shows birth rates remaining high but death rates decreasing because of the improvement in medical care and cleanliness. In Tanzania, over the past 100 years the country was at the end of stage 1. More recently Tanzania has moved into stage 2 where the death rate has fallen because health care programmes have taken place. Children are now getting vaccinated against major diseases and fewer children will die from unclean water. Families living in Tanzania, which is an LEDC are not as unfortunate as those living in Brazil. Parents are now being trained to bring their children up on a healthier and more nutritional diet meaning that children are generally in good health and more parts of Tanzania are being issued safe water supplies. A high percentage of Tanzania’s population is made up of people under the age of 35, so the death rate is now low.

In Tanzania, women are being more careful about how many children they have and when they have them. Families still need a lot of children so that they can work but Tanzanian mothers have taken to family planning. Now, mothers are working out when it is the safest and healthiest time to have a child, so that there own and their child’s life is not put in any danger. This is also reducing the death rate. The birth rate still stays high because more children means more workers and carers and as the Tanzanian government do not provide old age pensions it is up to the children to work for their parents health. A country in stage 2 of the DTM shows that they are improving their economy and can therefore supply cleaner water, better sewerage facilities and enhanced medical care. There has also been an improvement in the quality and the quantity of food that is being supplied in the country so people are eating a healthy 2-3 meals a day. In the future, Tanzania will successfully move on to stage 3 of the DTM because the death rate will keep falling and soon because of controlled birth and family planning, the birth rate will soon decrease as well. Kerala in Southern India is on stage 3 of the DTM unlike the rest of the country because it does not just rely on agriculture as its source of employment; this means that families will not need to have as many children because they will not need to work on the land. The area has made a lot of money in trade due to the canal system there; it is also very close to the coast. Since the area is wealthier than the rest of the country, the local government can supply the area with medical care. The government has also encouraged women to get sterilised after having two children and they are not afraid of having this procedure because the health care has improved so much. All of these things are causing the birth rate to decrease. Women are also having access to further education and pursuing careers in Kerala and are choosing to do this before starting a family and having children. Most families are moving from remote country areas to the cities where it is more expensive to support a child, consequently birth rates will decrease because families will not be able to financially support lots of children. Although, if a women has a career and chooses to raise a family at the same time as having a career she will have less children because it is more difficult to maintain a constructive family life if the mother is preoccupied with her work. Stage 4 of the DTM represents a country like England where the birth rate and death rate are low because women are not having children until they are financially stable meaning until they have been successful in their career. Women who are in their thirties and set in their careers feel they have more to lose if they begin a family now, and because of this the government are trying to reduce the financial impact that children make on successful women. The situation in an MEDC like England is different to the situation in places like the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. In an LEDC, the families need as many workers as they can to make any profit so they have more children. The more children per family in an LEDC means more of an income unless the family are affected by disease or famine. In an MEDC having a child is in fact a huge investment and many people suffer financially from having children. Subsequently, less people are choosing to start a family for this reason, this obviously has a negative impact on the birth rate requiring it to decrease. Health care is also very stable at stage 4 because mostly it is only MEDC’s at this stage of the DTM and all MEDC’s have an established health care system. Therefore, treatments and procedures are much safer and are carried out much more regularly and efficiently. Predominantly, in an MEDC there is a better general standard of living, which is not necessarily cost effective, contributing to the impact a child may have financially. It can be argued that a 5th stage is needed for the DTM because in places like Japan the death rate is higher than the birth rate meaning that there is a negative natural increase and a decline in the population.

If all the countries in the world were at stage 4 then the population growth would not increase at all. If the world were to achieve zero population growth then the rate in which the Earth’s natural resources are being used up would decrease and so would pollution. If the population of the world continued to grow and grow then there would be severe problems in working out how to feed, clothe and house them all. In conclusion, the 5 countries that I have spoken about all fit on to different stages of the DTM because the economic status at which the country is at affects incline in the population. In the Amazon Rainforest, Brazil the average way of living is so poor because the country has very little money to develop itself. In upcoming years, the country may become more secure and as a result its economy would become stronger so the lives of its inhabitants would become better. In England, the average way of living it’s already at a very high standard because the countries economy is very strong. This means that the government can offer the general public more services to accommodate their needs.