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DTM. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Demographic Transition Model is a model that represents how population changes over time. Understanding each stage can help one understand the type of economy,  what stage of development it is in, and the social factors affecting the country amongst other things. The DTM is reflective of everything that in the Human Geography course. The image above shows some of the key traits of each stage of the DTM. 

 

 

Stage 1: 

 

  • Unbalanced years

  • Subsistence farming and transhumance

  • Little population growth

  • High CBR, child and infant mortality rates, and CDR

  • Famine and pestilence (a fatal epidemic) are common

  • There are no countries with Stage 1 characteristics; those that have them are often times Third World countries that have been in war for a long time

 

Stage 2:

 

  • Birth rate is steady

  • High IMR and CMR (infant and child mortality rate)

  • Countries are in the 2nd Agricultural Revolution

  • Death rate drops

  • Internal or inter-regional migration

  • Improved sanitation, nutrition, and medicine

  • Primary and secondary economic activities

  • Subsistence and early commercial economic activities

  • 10 to 1 dependency ratio

  • Rocket-shaped population pyramid

  • Examples of Stage 2 countries include Ghana and Nepal

 

Stage 3:

 

  • Dropping birth rate

  • Better health care, improved education, introduction of family planning

  • Death rate stablizes 

  • Full industrial revolution

  • Population grows

  • Women enter workforce; gender equality is established

  • Interregional and international migration

  • Human-created diseases

  • Increase in chronic disease

  • Secondary and tertiary economic activities

  • Commercial and intensive subsistence agriculture

  • House shaped population pyramid

  • Examples include Uruguay

 

Stage 4:

 

  • Birth rate matches death rate

  • Zero population growth

  • Children no longer become a necessity

  • In-migration from other countries

  • Delayed chronic illnesses (cancer survivors)

  • Tertiary, quatrinary, and quinary economic activities

  • Commercial agricultre

  • 1 to 2 dependency ratio

  • Stop sign shaped population pyramid

  • Examples include Canada and the United States

 

Stage 5: 

 

  • Negative population growth

  • Birth rate slightly below death rate

  • Reemergence of parasitic and infectious diseases

  • Examples include Germany and Japan

 

 

 

The slideshare below shows the model broken down and explained. 

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