This 'population explosion' happens because death rates are brought down relatively quickly through advanced methods of disease control, public health, and better nutrition. However, it takes longer for society to adjust to change and alter its reproductive behaviour (which was evolved during the period of poverty and high death rates) to suit the new situation of relative prosperity and longer life spans. … More or less similar patterns are followed in the less developed countries that are struggling to reduce the birth rate in keeping with the falling mortality rate. … Sometimes, societies can experience a negative growth rate, that is, their fertility levels are below the replacement rate.
The passage leaves out a line naming places where fertility is below the replacement rate today. Which places does it name?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Japan, Russia, Italy and Eastern Europe
Option (1) Japan, Russia, Spain and Western Europe — Incorrect. Western Europe is the region where the demographic transition took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Spain and Western Europe are absent from the examples of negative growth today.
Option (2) China, Russia, Italy and Eastern Europe — Incorrect. China comes up in the chapter for its declining sex ratio, which is linked to son preference. That is a separate issue from fertility below the replacement rate.
Option (3) Japan, Russia, Italy and Eastern Europe — Correct. When fertility falls below the replacement rate, a society has a negative growth rate. Japan, Russia, Italy and Eastern Europe are the places the chapter gives for this today.
Option (4) Japan, Germany, Italy and Northern Europe — Incorrect. Germany and Northern Europe do not appear among the examples of negative growth. Italy and Eastern Europe are the examples, along with Japan and Russia.
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