What affects Birth Rates and Death Rates?

There is a total of about 196 different countries in the world and all of them have varying Birth Rates(BR) versus Death Rates(DR). What exactly affects the BRs and DRs of the different countries? First things first, in general, less developed countries (LDC) such as China and India have much higher birth rates compared to already developed countries(DC) such as Singapore. The most obvious difference would be that LDCs tend to be more rural, in the way that they generally do more farming and mass rearing of animals while in DCs technology is everything and majority of the jobs are not physically, but mentally-tiring.

In LDCs, since they need more manpower to work in their fields, families would often be bigger so that more children can provide help. Another reason for high BRs in LDCs would be because the people there (especially the women) lack proper education relating to sexuality and thus contraceptives preventing unwanted pregnancies are not used. These women then become very family-orientated, putting their focus on expanding their families and caring for them instead of securing a job. Religious beliefs or status quo also encourages the people to have big families. Furthermore, besides due to high infant mortality rates, the most common would be the preference for male babies who carry on the family name and are physically stronger. The parents might have many daughters while trying for a son.

Although the BRs in LDCs are very high, the DR is comparable. The DRs are also very high in LDCs due to the lack of proper medical care. These countries are very poor and thus there is very minimal medical infrastructure and personnel available. Even when available, the hospitals are very widespread and patients would have to travel long distances to seek medical help. In addition, medical costs are really expensive and being simple farmers, most rural people in LDCs cannot afford medicine. Also, hygiene is another big factor. Most streets of LDCs are very filthy and are unsanitary. Germs and bacteria thrive in these conditions and diseases are spread very quickly. If a very serious and infectious disease is contracted by one human, it may very well wipe out a whole city within a few weeks.

In DCs, however, people are most focused on their jobs/careers and thus spend much less time focusing on family matters such as marriage and caring for babies. As a result, most couples nowadays marry late in their 20s or even in their 30s. Since older women are less fertile as they age, marrying later will result in less children, which leads to an overall low birth rate for the country. Singapore is an example of these kind of DCs where birth rates are very low. The government is trying to boost birth rates by encouraging couples through baby bonuses and special treatment for the pregnant or babies.

Following the low birth rates, low death rates are not far behind for most DCs as well. This is due to medical technology being very advanced in modern society. The elderly live longer as they receive proper medical care which is both convenient and non-expensive, as the government subsidies for the elderly.