High The Birth Rate example essay topic

Identify those areas of the world which have very high rates of natural increase in population today and give reasons for them. Rate of natural increase is defined as the rate at which a population is increasing / decreasing in a given year due to a surplus or deficit of births over deaths, expressed as a percentage of the base population. The birth rate (Br) is the number of live births per 1000 of the population in a given year. The death rate (Dr) is the number of deaths per thousand per year. In natural increase migration is not taken into account.

In this essay I will be talking about China, India and Bangladesh as examples of countries with high rates of natural increase, these countries are also classed as Less economically developed countries (LEDC's). India has a total population of 942'989'000 people, being 3'166'692 square kilometres in total this is a large country fit to house this amount of people. India's total natural increase is the Br (31) - Dr (10) = 21 per 1000. This is a high rate of natural increase compared to a more economically developed country like England which has a natural increase rate of 2.6 per 1000. Even with a infant mortality rate of 88 per 1000 the natural increase rate is still high.

This is partly to do with the fact that the average fertility rate is 4 children per family which is very high, children are born to take care of their parents as they grow old in LEDC countries like India, with the infant mortality rate so high they have to have more children to allow for the ones that are going to die. It is no wonder that the average life expectancy is 58-59 years when Medical health care in India is so poor. The amount of people per doctor being 2'439, not much family planning information and contraception is going to be able to be given to people who only see their doctor once every two years or so. This is an extremely high amount compared to an MEDC (more economically developed country) but an average or low number in LEDC terms. The education expenditure is only 3.5% of the GNP (gross national product) which accounts for only 50% of adults in India being literate and maybe also for the lack of doctors. The people of India only earn an average of $290 annual income so they can not pay for private health care or education so the country does not become any more developed.

The population of China is 1'185'000'000 and China is 9'596'961 square kilometres in size. This means that China is approximately three times the size of India, but not three times the population so the people will be more spaced out. China's natural increase is Br (21) - Dr (7) = 14 per 1000 which is lower than India's but nowhere near as low as England's. China's Fertility rate is 2 children per family and the infant mortality rate is 27 per 1000 which is much lower that India's also, suggesting better health care and better education.

The adult literacy rate is 70% which is higher than India's and the amount of people per doctor is 1000, this means better access to health care and more advice and information about diseases, how not to contract them and what to do if you do contract one. Contraception is also another major issue, with more time with doctors they can give more information on the topic, there are 57 different religions prominent in China and as different religions have different views on contraception it is likely that a lot of people can use it without effecting their beliefs. The educational expenditure is 2.4% of the GNP which could be good if there is lots of money in the economy (annual income per person is $370) or bad if there is not as there are a lot more people in China than India and India spends more of its GNP on education. Bangladesh is the least economically developed place out of the three I have chosen to study, its natural increase is Br (41) - Dr (14) = 27 per 1000 which is by far the most increase. The population of Bangladesh is 118'342'000 which seeing as it is only 143'998 square kilometres is a very high number. The infant mortality rate is the highest of the three at 108 per 1000 which makes it hard to see why if so many of the babies that are conceived die, the natural increase rate is so high.

The amount of people per doctor is 12'500 which is atrocious. These people will be waiting for a long time to see a doctor if anything happens to them and as they only earn on average $220 per household they can not afford private health care. Contraception will hardly be noticed in a country of this many people and so few doctors to see people so the fertility rate per household is 4 children per family which is why the birth rate is so high. The people of Bangladesh are very poorly educated as only 2.0% of the GNP is spent on education, people are not made aware of techniques of birth control so they have lots of children.

Bangladesh is the place of highest natural increase with 27 per 1000, due to the poor health service and exploding birth rate. Though the infant mortality rate is extremely high the birth rate is so high that the natural increase remains high. I think that the main cause of high natural increase is the poor health care and lack of education and therefore knowledge about contraception and health care. The amount of doctors per amount of people in these countries is very poor, in an MEDC, fro example Europe; Japan or Australia this would be totally unacceptable. The lack of money in the economy is also a major concern, there is not enough money in a household to afford private health care so they have to make do with whatever they get which is practically nothing in Bangladesh. These areas of the world are at the bottom of the Economical class and looking at their health care and education figures you could tell, it is primarily LEDC countries that have problems with their natural increase rate as you can begin to see from the three LEDC samples I have chosen.