This Geography A-Level resource provides a detailed analysis of the factors influencing death rates, mortality factors, birth rates, and fertility rates worldwide. It examines key elements such as healthcare access, economic conditions, cultural practices, and policy impacts. With clear explanation...
Factors Explaining Death Rate, Mortality Factors, Birth Rate and Fertility Rates
across the world
Death rate is mainly affected by 6 different factors:
1. The age of the population – If there is a higher proportion of older people in the population,
then the death rate is likely to be higher as older people are more likely to die than a
younger person.
2. Health and Nutrition – Due to improved agriculture, the increased availability of food aid and
the growth of medical services the death rate has fallen. In most parts of the world mortality
is declining as conditions improve. However, in some countries the death rate has risen due
to famine and diseases.
3. Urbanisation – Due to the greater availability of medical services in urban areas death rates
are lower in cities than in rural areas as there is more economics of scales. So due to people
migrating to cities over the past 100 years during industrialisation, death rates have fallen.
4. Level of economic development – As a country develops it goes through an epidemiological
transition, which is a shift from deaths caused by infectious diseases or insect carrying
disease, to degenerative diseases associated with a higher standard of living: cancer, heart
attacks, strokes.
5. Gender -Women usually have a higher life expectancy than men and also have a lower
chance of infant mortality compared to men.
6. War – In the Second World War 24 million people were killed in the Soviet Union, which was
14% of the 1939 population. A high proportion of these were men, so the impact on the
demography of the country was significant.
Birth Rates and fertility rates are affected by 3 main factors:
1. Economic
In countries where most people are still farmers and children are utility in that they can
be used to farmer the land as children there are much higher birth rates. Whereas in
countries of usually higher economic development where children are a lot less likely to
work, they become more of a liability than a utility.
In place with lower life expectancies due to disease and famine parents may have more
children in the hope that at least some will survive.
Compulsory education also usually leads to a fall in birth rates as women of higher status
usually have less children. Also, as more women take paid jobs fertility rates tend to fall.
Fertility rates are also lower in cities as children are usually harder to support than in
rural areas. Therefore, areas more urbanised usually have lower birth rates.
Contraception is also more expensive in less developed countries as well as the people
having less knowledge of family planning.
2. Social
If a country experiences a lot of immigration from a country with a higher fertility rates
then the people may bring with them larger families and the idea of having more
children which would in turn increase fertility rates.
The age of the population will also affect fertility rates as the more people in the age
bracket 16-45 then the higher the potential of the fertility rate is.
In places with an unbalanced sex ratio, such as China, where there are more boys than
girls then the birth rates will be less.
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