GG102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Infant Mortality, Demographic Transition, Core Countries
Document Summary
Even slight improvements to sanitation etc. can thus greatly improve newborns" and infants" chances for survival, which in turn leads to a dramatic decline in mortality (death rates). These changes allow women more control over when to have children and how many to have. It has been observed that this increased control often leads to lower numbers of children per woman and so decreases birth rates. There are two caveats to the demographic transition model that we should examine in more detail. Second, the phrase "increased control often leads to lower numbers of children per woman" indicates that this is not always the case. The demographic transition model was devised by looking at the historical experience of western europe. As such, it represents the experience of core countries where industrialization occurred rather rapidly, which in turn allowed these countries to go through the demographic transition in a matter of decades.
