Demographic Transitions

Demographic transition is the process in which a nation
transitions from being a less industrialized society, with high birth and death
rates, to an industrialized nation, with lower birth and death rates. Many
countries have already been through this transition including the United
States, England, and Canada.

The demographic transition to an industrialized society is
detrimental for the environment because industrialized societies tend to use up
nonrenewable resources and give off pollution. Industrialized nations have the
largest ecological and carbon footprint relative to developing or
nonindustrialized countries. Fortunately, there are some benefits to the process
of demographic transition, including lower birth and death rates. Essentially,
people in industrialized countries have fewer children and this in turn helps
control the overall population size.

Demographic transition involves the following five stages:

It should be noted that stage 5 is controversial, and it is
sometimes not considered to be a stage. This is partially because so few
countries are at this stage.

The following graph depicts the various stages of demographic
transition:

Using the stages listed above, create a demographic and
environmental timeline for one industrialized country, excluding the United
States. The following are a few suggested industrialized nations:

• Canada
• England
• Germany
• Russia
• Italy

You can download
the Demographic and Environmental Timeline—United States of America to review
an example of such a timeline.

Include the following points in your timeline in order to examine
the advantages and drawbacks of demographic transition in your selected
country:

• Major
  historical changes that caused the shift from one stage to another (if
  available).
• Changing
  population size through time (increasing or decreasing).
• Increase
  or decrease of birth and death rates through time—particularly when
  considering the process of industrialization.
• Environmental
  impact of this transition.
• Dates (if
  available), series of events, and scholarly references for these items.