ABSTRACT
The theory of demographic transition suggests that populations pass through three distinct stages of development. According to this model, in the pre-modern period numbers are essentially static with birth and death rates broadly equal; the second stage is associated with modernisation and is marked by a period of rapid population growth, while the third stage heralds renewed stability and low birth and death rates in the post-modern period. Viewing the world through the spectacles of this model helps explain the present variability in global population growth rates; the countries of the developed world (Europe, North America, Oceania, and the newly industrialised countries of Asia) have entered the post-modern phase and have low or even negative rates of population growth, whereas much of the developing world is still modernising and as a consequence rates of population growth, although
decelerating in many countries, remain comparatively high.
