Free Custom «Demography Transition» Essay Paper

By definition, demographic transition can be described as the change from high mortality and fertility to low ones in the conditions of human beings. It is the reduction in birth rates as women tend to average only two children while life expectancy increases with decreased deaths.

Demographic transition occurs in basically four phases. These include the pre-industrial society phase where both mortality and fertility rates are high and seemingly balanced resulting in a stable population (Chesnais, 1993). In the second phase, the country’s population increases as with a rapid drop in death rates given the improved basic needs like sanitation and food supply. Better healthcare services which cover childhood mortality and improved education standards translate to decline in death rates of developing countries at this stage.

In the third phase, population growth begins to decline following increased wages and access to contraception. The people begin to embrace higher values. In the fourth phase, both the rates of birth and death begin to level up again causing a somehow stable population (Coale, 1987). In some cases, the population may begin to shrink since the birth rate may sometimes drop to irreplaceable levels.

Crude Birth Rates (CBR) and Crude Death Rates (CDR) are statistics used in the measuring of decline or growth of a population (Bruce, 2006 ). Increased women education and status are some of the factors that can lead to a decline of both CBR and CDR alongside availability and knowledge of how to use contraceptives, increase in the wages and a tendency to embrace more higher values as brought about by urbanization.

One of the living conditions on countries that have reached the fourth phase is that of an ageing population which leaves them with much burden for human labor. This is in sharp contrast with developing nations which have a high population comprising mostly of youths hence ready market labor. Increased access to healthcare services prolong lives while those being born are reduced as a r4esult of access to contraceptives and modern lifestyles. On the contrary, those is earlier stages are still stuck with cultural practices that embrace more children while basic sanitation is poor hence poor living standards and low life expectancy. Also, countries in phase four are industrialized and the reliance on more industrial practice increases pollution of both the air and other natural resources like rivers. This Impact negatively on the environment. But on the brighter side, they have managed general sanitation standards as compared to developing nations.

For a developing country aiming at phase IV, the advice would be to reduce subsistence agriculture and investing in education as well as women empowerment. These initiatives would bode well with the idea to embrace urbanization which will definitely put them on the path top phase IV if proper implementation mechanisms are adhered to.

The content of this course tends to theorize a lot and has minimal chances for experimentation because the stages take a long time to be realized. It means that the course will only provide learners with the understanding while the challenges of execution remain to be experienced.

Currently, environmental concern is on climate change and industrialized nations bore the greatest responsibility for the damage done so far. It means therefore that if all countries reach phase four, then the damage could be great with increased industrialization.

In developed countries, most people are aged unlike in developing nations where the majority of the population are the youths most of whom are unemployed. Mortality rates are higher in the latter category meaning problems like poor sanitation and hygiene are challenges to be dealt with.

An ecosystem has two main components; the biotic and the abiotic ones. The abiotic components are basically physical factors while the biotic components are mainly the producers of an ecosystem such as living organisms.