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Journal ArticleDOI

The demographic transition.

Ansley J. Coale
- 01 Dec 1984 - 
- Vol. 23, Iss: 4, pp 531-552
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TLDR
An extensive study of the demographic transition in Europe shows the absence of a simple link of fertility with education, proportion urban, infant mortality and other aspects of development, and suggests the importance of such cultural factors as common customs associated with a common language, and the strength of religious traditions.
Abstract
Demographic transition is a set of changes in reproductive behaviour that are experienced as a society is transformed from a traditional pre-industrial state to a highly developed, modernized structure. The transformation is the substitution of slow growth achieved with low fertility and mortality for slow growth maintained with relatively high fertility and mortality rates. Contrary to early descriptions of the transition, fertility in pre-modem societies was well below the maximum that might be attained. However, it was kept at moderate levels by customs (such as late marriage or prolonged breast-feeding) not related to the number of children already born. Fertility has been reduced during the demographic transition by the adoption of contraception as a deliberate means of avoiding additional births. An extensive study of the transition in Europe shows the absence of a simple link of fertility with education, proportion urban, infant mortality and other aspects of development. It also suggests the importance of such cultural factors as common customs associated with a common language, and the strength of religious traditions. Sufficient modernization nevertheless seems always to bring the transition to low fertility and mortality.

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Citations
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Population, Technology, and Growth: From the Malthusian Regime to the Demographic Transition and Beyond

TL;DR: In this paper, a unified model of growth, population, and technological progress is developed, which is consistent with long-term historical evidence, and it is shown that technological progress creates a state of disequilibrium which raises the return to human capital and induces patients to substitute child quality for quantity.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change

TL;DR: The case for a multidisciplinary approach to population theory has been aptly stated by Kurt Mayer: "Any meaningful interpretation of the cause and effects of population changes must extend beyond formal statistical measurement of the components of change, i.e., fertility, mortality and migration, and draw on the theoretical framework of several other disciplines for assistance" as mentioned in this paper.
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Growing Epidemic of Coronary Heart Disease in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

TL;DR: The varying incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates reflect the different levels of risk factors, other competing causes of death, availability of resources to combat cardiovascular disease, and the stage of epidemiologic transition that each country or region finds itself.
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Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: a 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating.

TL;DR: Sex differences in sociosexuality were generally large and demonstrated cross-cultural universality across the 48 nations of the ISDP, confirming several evolutionary theories of human mating.
Journal ArticleDOI

Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters

TL;DR: In this article, a new theoretical link between inequality and growth was developed, where fertility and education decisions are interdependent and a mean-preserving spread in the income distribution increases fertility differential between the rich and the poor, which implies that more weight gets placed on families who provide little education.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Nursing frequency, gonadal function, and birth spacing among !Kung hunter-gatherers.

TL;DR: Mothers among !Kung hunter-gatherers nurse briefly and frequently, with brief intervals between nursing bouts, and the low levels of 17 beta-estradiol and progesterone in the serum of the mother are correlated with infant's age and with interbout interval, but not with total nursing time.
Book

Human Fertility in Russia Since the Nineteenth Century

TL;DR: The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press as discussed by the authors.
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Factors involved in the decline of fertility in Spain, 1900-1950

TL;DR: In this article, a statistical analysis is made of the social and economic characteristics associated with the decline of marital fertility in Spain, variables examined on a provincial basis are marriage patterns, marital fertility, and indices of industrialization, urbanization, and literacy.
Trending Questions (1)
What is demographic?

Demographic refers to the study of population characteristics, such as birth rates, death rates, and migration patterns.