Demography / Week 14 / Cindy Paskalina Kweesar

Summary

Demography is the study of human populations. This includes how humans grow and spread over time. Analysis in this study uses data taken from censuses or pre-existing statistics. The main thing they usually find out is the fertility, mortality and migration pattern.

Fertility refers to a woman's ability to produce offspring. In this area, scholar usually also searches for replacement level. Replacement level will tell us the number of children that must be produced to reach the previous population number. Fertility is closely related to the level of female education. The higher the level of education the lower the value of fertility. In addition, the level of development of the country they live in is also an influential factor.

Mortality refers to the ability of humans to die. In this area the scholar will find out about the death rate or the length of time a person lives in his life. Just like fertility, the education and development of the country you live in also greatly influences the level of mortality that exists.

Demographic transition theory is a model that describes changes in population from high stable growth rates to low growth that occur from time to time. According to Blacker there are 5 stages of demographic transition. Stage 1: Experienced by pre-industrial communities. fertility rates and mortality rates are high .This happens because there is no fertility control, lack of food and there is no adequate health technology. Stage 2: Mortality rates slowly decreasing and fertility rates start increasing. Experienced by developing countries. Stage 3: The mortality rate decreases rapidly and there are a decreasing level of fertility but not as fast as the decrease in mortality. Stage 4: Birth rates and mortality rates are both low or zero. Therefore the growth population is high and stable. Stage 5: The mortality rate is higher than the fertility rate

Overpopulation is a situation where the population of living things is very large, exceeding the resources that living things need to live. Overpopulation can have an impact on child poverty, the affinity of plants and animals consumed by humans, high unemployment rates and much more. One proven solution is to provide education to women. Other solutions offered are family planning programs and reforestation. The opposite of overpopulation is underpopulation. Countries that experience this experience worry because usually the decline in the population of living things is accompanied by a decline in the country's economy too.

The last thing that is often examined is the migration pattern. In particular, urbanization is the movement of people from rural to urban areas. This usually happens because rural people are looking for a better life in an urban area where job opportunities are far greater. Urbanization is often considered to have an adverse effect especially on the environment. Based on existing data, urban areas are warmer than rural areas.

What was interesting/what did you learn

It is interesting to see that in fact this concept has long been projected by Thomas Malthus in "An Essay on the Principle of Population". Even though at that time there was no technology like family planning pills, etc. he has offered several solutions such as moral restrain to deal with this problem.

Discussion Point

With the adverse effects of urbanization, is it possible that in the future there will be a trend of population movements from urban to rural?