ABSTRACT
Demographic transitions rank among the most sweeping and best-documented historical trends of modern times. The middle decades of the nineteenth century constituted a long lull in the demographic history of the West. Nevertheless the proposition stands, with very high probability, that demographic transition implies a substantial speeding up in the growth of population both as compared to the pre-transition period and to its later phases. The initial widening observed between birth and death rates in past transitions has not been accidental, and an analogous widening seems even more likely in future transitions. Lower fertility and the means for achieving it have long been subjects of religious controversy and deep-rooted ethical, social and individual debate, both within the household and in the community at large. Eastern and Southern Europe–the second group of populations singled out–has had a much briefer recorded history of modem demographic movements.
