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The demographic transition is a process of change in a society’s population from high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and a higher total population.

Why does population growth vary amoung regions?

Mexico’s population exploded in the mid-20th century as death rates plummeted and birth rates remained high.  From 1940 to 1980, the number of Mexicans more than quadrupled from under 20 million to over 80 million.  In the 1960s and 1970s the population growth was among the world’s fastest at 3.3% a year.  At this rate, the population doubles in less than 22 years.

Mexico//DTM

Two ways of reducing birth rates are contraception or abortion

  • contraceptionand fertility control, are methods or devices used to prevent pregnancy. Planning, provision and use of birth control is called family planning.

  • Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo from the womb before it can survive on its own.An abortion which occurs spontaneously is also known as a miscarriage. An abortion may be caused purposely and is then called an induced abortion. 

  • Thomas Malthus warned that population growth would exceed resource growth, leading to catastrophic checks on overpopulation. 

  • Without population control, the population would be reduced by catastrophes such as famine or war .

  • Malthus wanted  moral restraint: people must practice abstinence, sterilization, and have criminal punishments for those who have more children than they can support.

  • Malthusian catastrophes refer to naturally ocurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war.

  • These Malthusian catastrophes havn't taken place on a global scale because the progress in agricultural technology. However, many argue that future pressures on food production, combined with threats such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future

 

 

 

Malthus's Argument

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