A state's health report looks back over three decades. In the earliest decade births far outnumbered deaths each year and numbers grew fast. Since then both the birth rate and the death rate have fallen steadily. In the latest decade the two rates have come so close that the gap between them is very small, with births only just ahead of deaths. Planners now want to know how demographers would describe this condition of the state.
This condition is also described as a particular level of growth. What does that level of growth represent?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The growth needed for new generations to replace the older ones dying out
Option (1) The growth needed for new generations to replace the older ones dying out — Correct. A stabilised population is also said to have reached the replacement level. This is the rate of growth needed for new generations to replace the older ones that are dying out.
Option (2) The growth at which working-age people outnumber the dependent age groups — Incorrect. Working-age people outnumbering the dependent groups describes the age structure of a population, the basis of the demographic dividend. The replacement level instead concerns births only just covering deaths.
Option (3) The growth at which in-migration and out-migration balance each other — Incorrect. A balance of in-migration and out-migration concerns people moving into and out of an area. The replacement level is about natural growth, that is births against deaths, and leaves migration aside.
Option (4) The growth at which death rates fall faster than birth rates — Incorrect. Death rates falling faster than birth rates marks the transitional stage of the demographic transition. That stage brings very high growth, known as the population explosion.
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