Abstract
The demographic transition is a specific change in the reproductive behaviour of a population that is said to occur during the transformation of a society from a traditional to a highly modernized state. The postulated change is from near equality of birth and death rates at high levels to near equality of birth and death rates at low levels. In the pre-modern state women who survive to age 50 have borne a large number of children; in the fully modernized society women bear only a small number. In a traditional society high mortality rates imply a low average duration of life; in highly modernized societies low mortality rates permit a long average duration of life.
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© 1989 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Coale, A.J. (1989). Demographic Transition. In: Eatwell, J., Milgate, M., Newman, P. (eds) Social Economics. The New Palgrave. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19806-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19806-1_4
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