Demographic Transition Assignment

   Today in class, we worked on a 10-point assignment:

Khan Academy Video:

• Religion can influence population growth because a lot of times it promotes large families. Some religions restrict the use of contraceptives, so most likely, these followers will have a large family, increasing population.
• It is believed that most countries were in stage one of Demographic Transition until the 18th century because deaths rates in Western Europe began to fall. 
• In stage three of Demographic Transition, a country is becoming more industrialized. There is not a need to have a lot of kids to do work anymore (and it isn't legal anymore, anyways), the kids are being sent to school instead of work, so they are spending more money than bringing in (this isn't economically beneficial), and there is a much easier access to contraceptives.

Video from Kim Smith, phD.

• The world gains 67,000 people every six to seven hours
• The world was in stage one of the Demographic Transition for most of human history. In this stage, there were high birth rates and high death rates.
• Cultural lag is when the death rates drop, but the birth rates stay high. It is called this because the technology that improved mortality rates changed faster than the culture's ability to adapt.

Why Populations Grow

• The doubling time is the length of time it takes for population to double in size. Doubling size can be calculated by dividing 70 by the growth rate.
• Countries like New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom are in stage four of Demographic Transition because the are economically developed. They have strong economies, a highly educated population, strong healthcare systems, and more women in the workplace.
• Some demographers added a fifth stage to Demographic Transition because countries like Japan have a TFR that is less than 2.1 (the replacement rate). This means that they're population declines.

Personally, the Khan Academy video was the most helpful video for me because I am more of a visual learner. I like to see graphs, diagrams, and drawings while learning because it helps me understand better. I liked how in this video, it was an active marker drawing graphs and writing down information. It was a lot less boring than the other two videos and it just explained the topic of Demographic Transition very well. They were very descriptive and I think it was a better teacher than the people in the other two videos.