Question

1. Describe the concept of the demographic transition. Why might this matter for development?

Answer 1

1) Demographic transition refers to the population change over time.

Given below are the stages of demographic transition:

Step1: Pre-industrial growth: This stage is when there is high birth and high death rate. This means that the growth in population is slow

Step2: Due to improvements in living standards or better sanitation facilities, the decline is seen in the death rate. Life expectancy increases and people become more immune to diseases. Overall the population is increasing in this stage

Step3: In this step, because the life expectancy has increased, there is a decline in the birth rate or fertility rates. There is urbanization , higher education and people tend to have lesser children. The opportunity cost of having children increases, more women are employed etc. So at this stage the population tends to decrease.

Step 4: in this stage , due to decreased birth and death rate, the population growth seems to get slow.

Demographic transition is important for economic growth because

It determines the percentage of working population which is essential for the economic growth. When there is better living standards and reduced diseases and better immunity, the population would be healthier and hence would contribute to better output and overall development.

Similarly when the women are getting educated in stage 3, it leads to higher equality , happier population and hence greater contribution to society. Also this would help achieve the sustainable goals , help eradicate poverty , increase health standards etc.

But it is also seen that after this stage, there would be a decline in the youth population. reason being that as people decide to have lesser children, the current population would age and there would be lesser youth or working population. This would also lead to greater burden of elderly on the working population.

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