The United Nations predicts that by 2025 wealthy societies will grow by 57 million people, while poor societies will grow by 1.7 billion people. What are the possible reasons for this growth pattern? What are the consequences of this growth pattern?
disease, general medical health, medical availability, food, infant medical care come to mind. I don't know if fertility is different for the groups.
One reason that poor societies tend to have more children is that so many of their babies die. In order to insure that parents have children to help them in their old age, they want to make sure that they have some children who live til adulthood. Another reason for the high birthrate among the poor is that they don't have access to or money for birth control. It's been shown that when women have more control over their lives, that the birthrate among the poor also falls.
If this pattern continues, then we face a major problem as the have-nots challenge the haves for their share of economic resources.
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