Population Change (AQA A Level Geography)

Natural Population Change

• Natural population change occurs when birth and death rates differ in a place
  • If birth rates are higher than death rates then there will be a natural increase
  • If death rates are higher than birth rates there will be a natural decrease
• Population also changes when people migrate into and out of an area
• Population change is also influenced by the following key vital rates:
  • Fertility rate
  • Infant mortality rate 
  • Replacement level
  • Net production rate

• Factors that affect death rates, birth rates and fertility rates, have a significant impact on population and rates of change
• The following all contribute to high death rates:
  • Poverty and low levels of socio-economic development
  • Poor medical infrastructure
  • Poor nutrition
  • Lack of clean water supply
  • Poor sanitation 
• The following cultural controls lead to higher rates of fertility and births:
  • Gender
    • Some societies, such as those in rural parts of LICs like Niger, prefer male children so that they can contribute more to family income
      • This leads to more births as parents will keep having children until they have more than one boy
      • Discrimination against women in some cultures leads to lack of education and less chance of a career
        • Therefore women are likely to have more children at younger ages
  • Marriage traditions
    • The younger a woman marries, the more children she is likely to have
    • In Niger 75% of girls marry before the age of 18
    • Fertility rates in Niger were 6.9 in 2020, one of the highest rates in the world
• The following cultural controls lead to lower rates of fertility and births:
  • Religion
    • Some faiths, such as Roman Catholicism, oppose contraception which can put a check on fertility and birth rates
  • Political policies
    • Governments concerned about overpopulation can introduce policies of population control
      • China operated a ‘one-child policy’ from 1979-2015
    • The Indian state of Kerala has invested in girls education since 1980s
      • This helped bring down the fertility rate in the state down from over 5 to 1.8 in 2021