The death rates in a country have come down, but birth rates continue to be high. Which of the following situations will this give rise to?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Population Explosion
Option (1) Population Stagnation — Incorrect. Population stagnation means the population stays at about the same size over time, because births and deaths roughly balance. Here births stay high while deaths fall, so the gap between them widens and the population grows fast.
Option (2) Population Momentum — Incorrect. Population momentum is growth that goes on because a large cohort of women is of reproductive age, even after each woman has fewer children. The question describes birth rates that are still high, not falling.
Option (3) Population Explosion — Correct. In the transitional stage, death rates are brought down relatively quickly through disease control, public health and better nutrition, but society takes longer to change its reproductive behaviour, so the birth rate stays high. The result is very high rates of growth of population, the ‘population explosion’.
Option (4) Population Decline — Incorrect. A population declines when fertility falls below the replacement level, so that fewer babies are born than are needed to replace those who die. High birth rates with falling death rates do the opposite.
Note: The concept in Option (1), ‘population stagnation’, is not in NCERT (2025-26); explained here for the benefit of the students.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Theory of Demographic Transition … 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.…” |