According to the theory of Demographic Transition, 'population explosion' happens if
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Birth rates remain high, but death rates are low
Option (1) Birth rate is high — Incorrect. A high birth rate alone does not cause an explosion. In the first stage both birth and death rates are high, so the net growth rate stays low; the explosion needs the death rate to fall as well.
Option (2) Birth rates remain high, but death rates are low — Correct. The theory sees population growth in three stages. In the transitional stage between the first and the last, death rates are brought down quickly through disease control, public health and better nutrition, but society takes longer to change its reproductive behaviour, so birth rates stay high. The wide gap between births and deaths gives very high growth: the ‘population explosion’.
Option (3) Death and birth rates both are high. — Incorrect. This is the first stage, an underdeveloped and technologically backward society, where the difference between the two rates, and so the growth, is low.
Option (4) Death and birth rates both are low. — Incorrect. This is the third and last stage, a developed society where both rates have come down and growth is again low.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Theory of Demographic Transition … This suggests that population growth is linked to overall levels of economic development and that every society follows a typical pattern of development-related population growth. There are three basic stages of population growth. The first stage is that of low population growth in a society that is underdeveloped and technologically backward.…” “…The third (and last) stage is also one of low growth in a developed society where both death rate and birth rate have been reduced considerably and the difference between them is again small. Between these two stages is a transitional stage of movement from a backward to an advanced stage, and this stage is characterised by very high rates of growth of population.” “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.…” |