Population Change

Population Change

1. LEDC's

   • Most LEDC’s are at stage 2/3 of the demographic transition model—this means they have falling death rates due to improving health care, whilst birth rates still remain high.
   • Causes
     • Limited access to contraception or family planning services.
     • Children are a valuable source of labour and income for families.
     • Children can help to care for younger children and elderly family members.
     • High rates of infant mortality means women need to have many children to ensure that some live through to adulthood.
     • It is sometimes traditional or culturally important to have a large family.
   • Problems
     • Young children need health care (e.g. immunisations). This is expensive for a country to provide.
     • Young people need to be educated- providing school and teachers is expensive, it is also difficult to access resources for lessons, and costly to buy them.
     • In the future more people will reach child bearing age, putting more pressure on the health services.

2. MEDC's

   • Most MEDC’s are at stage 4 of the demographic transition model— the population is high, but not growing. Some countries have a declining population and are entering stage 5—this means the birth rate in the country has fallen below the death rate.
   • Causes
     • Improvements in health care and medicine.
     • Increased leisure and recreation time.
     • Improved knowledge about the importance of a balanced diet and exercise.
     • Improved living standards and quality of life.
   • Problems
     • The number of young dependants is falling and the number of elderly dependants is rising.
     • In the future this will mean that there are fewer economically active people to support the elderly population.
     • Many elderly people rely on tax payers for state pensions and health services, the more elderly people there are, the more tax has to be payed.