What is the cause of global human population growth over the last 200 years?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Exploring the question about what has driven global human population growth over the past two centuries leads us to evaluate each option from a broad demographic perspective.
Option a: 'Increase in immigration.' While immigration can add people to specific countries or regions, it does not account for the global rise in population. The world population grows primarily because more people are born and survive to adulthood across all regions, not just due to people moving between countries.
Option b: 'Higher fertility rate.' In many parts of the world, fertility rates declined during the last century, especially in developed regions. Even where fertility was high, it is not the dominant universal cause of global population growth when viewed over two centuries; mortality changes have played a larger role in expanding the number of people.
Option c: 'Lower death rate.' This option reflects a central driver: improvements in medicine, sanitation, nutrition, and public health reduced mortality, especially infant and child mortality, allowing more individuals to survive to older ages. The combination of lower death rates with sustained birth rates produced the rapid, sustained population growth seen globally during the last 200 years.
Option d: 'Higher birth rate.' While higher birth rates can contribute to growth, they do not consistently explain global patterns across all regions over the entire 200-year span, particularly as many countries experienced declines in birth rates after industrialization. The overarching global trend aligns more with reduced mortality rather than uniformly higher birth rates.
In sum, the most consistent and widespread driver of the global population increase over the last couple of centuries is the decline in death rates, which increased survival and life expectancy, fueling population growth even as birth rates varied by region and time.

252_NSC2100 Environmental Science

What is the cause of global human population growth over the last 200 years?

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252_NSC2100 Environmental Science

What is the cause of global human population growth over the last 200 years?

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

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