Demographic transition theory

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  • modernization and industrialization

    modernization: Population change
    ...100 million to almost 200 million, and doubled again during the 19th century, to about 400 million. It was in Europe, too, that the pattern first emerged that has come to be known as the “demographic transition”. The populations of nonindustrial countries are normally stable (and low) because...
  • population decline

    population (biology and anthropology): Theory of the demographic transition
    The classic explanation of European fertility declines arose in the period following World War I and came to be known as demographic transition theory. (Formally, transition theory is a historical generalization and not truly a scientific theory offering predictive and testable hypotheses.) The theory arose in part as a reaction to crude biological explanations of fertility declines; it...
  • population pyramid

    population pyramid: Population pyramids and demographic transition
    Demographers who have studied the historical changes in age and sex composition, fertility, and mortality of the world’s populations have articulated a theory of demographic transition. This theory provides a useful approximation of the historical changes that have taken place in populations in many different regions of the world. The stages of this transition are represented by dramatically...
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