Free-Response Questions

4 a) Country X has the largest rate population growth, while Country Y has the smallest rate of
population growth. The population of Country X would have the largest rate of growth due to the
fact that it may be a developing country. In many developing countries birth rates are high, due
to the fact that many are not educated on disease, unlike countries similar to Country Y, which is
a developed country that educated their people on safety and diseases. Also Country X would
have a high rate of population growth due to lack of contraceptive products such as condoms,
which decrease birth rates within a population, but these contraceptive products are massed
produced in developed countries like Country Y.
4 b) The infant mortality rate in Country X and Y would extremely vary. In Country X the infant
mortality rate would be low, as disease run rampant through Countries similar to Country X and
they have a lack of technology and medication to prolong and/or save a childs life. While
Countries like Y, as stated earlier developed countries, have the technology and access to
medication to prolong and potentially save an infants life, which would cause them to have a
high infant mortality rate.
4 c) The birth rate and death rate in a country converting from a preindustrial society to an
industrial society would significantly change. The birth rate would increase significantly as preindustrial society held no technology unlike Industrial society which is highly prevalent on
technology. Unlike in Preindustrial society which had a limited food source, Industrial societies
can produce greater amounts of food, which would allow the population to grow exponentially.
Also the death rate would decrease in industrialized society compared to Preindustrial society,
mostly due to the new technology available to them. This would allow deaths to be less frequent
compared to a Pre-Industrialized society, due to the fact that life can be prolonged through the
effect use of the technology, and advances in medication that come from that increase in
technology.
4 d) One incentive that a government could use to reduce the growth rate of its population
involves Economics. Now a low cost of living will encourage people to have children, this is
widely seen throughout rural parts of the world. Now to counteract this is to increase the cost of
living. An increase in the cost of living would cause people to have less money, and therefore
they would not have the financial ability to support a child. This would be effective if the change
is done gradually throughout the country. Due to simple economics people would understand that
they cant survive and support the cost of living for a child, as they will begin to realize the price
of goods and services will continue to rise. A drawback with this plan however is that this can
only be done effectively in urban areas and regions close to urban areas. This is due to the cost of
living in rural areas rarely changing.