Joergen Daae - Assignment #3: Birth rate and ideology

Conclusion

From the statistics gathered from CIA World Factbook it seems as though Catholic prohibition does not have a influence on the birth rates of a nation. However, other factors tend to have a greater impact on a nations birth rates such as Infant mortality rate, total fertility rate, GDP per capita and population below the poverty line.

Mexico, Argentina and Colombia all have high birth rates. These countries all have in common high infant mortality rates, high fertility rates, shorter school life expectancy, less GDP per capita and a higher percentage of the population that is below the poverty line. These factors seem to be the main reasons why these countries have high birth rates and not  the fact that these countries are catholic and do not believe in using birth control. To confirm this we can take a look at Turkey, which has a very low percentage of catholic citizenship. Turkey seems to have the same similarities as Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, e.g. high infant mortality rate, high fertility rate, shorter school life expectancy, less GDP per capita and a higher percentage of the population below the poverty line.

On the other hand Poland, Spain and Italy all have relatively low birth rates. I do not believe that this is because they have a high percentage of catholic citizens. if we look at Denmark and Russia, we can see that they also have a relatively low birth rate even though they are do not have a majority of catholic citizens. what these countries have in common however is the fact that they all tend to have relatively low infant mortality rates, low fertility rates, longer school life expectancy, higher GDP per capita and a lower percentage of the population below the poverty line.

So it seems that even though there is a technological conservative prohibition against birth control amongst Catholic populations, this prohibition doesn't really exist in behavior.

Aleksander Dahle - Assignment #3: Birth rate and ideology

Andre Meloey Christensen - Assignment #3: Birth rate and ideology

Assignment 3 – Birth Rate and Ideology

 

High percentage of Catholic citizens

Low percentage of Catholic citizens

Assumption:
The assumption for this assignment is that nations with large catholic population will have high birth rates, because of absence birth control measures. On the other hand, nations with low Catholic population will have lower birth rates.

In this assignment I have chosen to take a look at Mexico, Spain, Italy, Poland, Brazil and Argentina as the Catholic countries, moreover I have chosen Norway, Somalia and Greece as the non-Catholic countries.

By looking at the data collected above, there can be drawn a few conclusions. Argentina and Spain have the highest amounts of Catholics in their countries (94% vs 92%), however the birthrates in Spain and Argentina are greatly different (10.14 vs 17.12). Comparing these countries with Norway with 1% Catholics and 10.8/1000 birthrate and Somalia with 0.001% Catholics and 41.45/1000 birthrate, we can conclude that there is NO significant correlation between Catholic religion in a country and its birthrates. By drawing this conclusion we have to accept that there must be other factors, which correlates and explains the birth rates in a country.

Looking at GDP – per capita and birth rates in Brazil with $12,100 and 14,97, Somalia with $600 and 41,45 and Mexico with $15,600 and 18,61, we can see there is clearly a negative correlation between having a low GDP in the country and a high birth rate. Also looking at the data of population below poverty line; Argentina (30%), Mexico (51,3%) and Somalia,(41%) the trend seems to be a higher birth rate in countries with high population below poverty line. An exception from this is Greece with 20% of its population below poverty line and only 8.94 birthrate. However, since those data are from 2009, these numbers might be affected by the financial crisis in the country.

Looking at birth rate and infant mortality rate in Brazil 14,97 and 19,83, Argentina 17,12 and 10.24 and Somalia 41,45 and 101,91, the evidence strongly concludes that high birth rate and high infant mortality is positively correlated.

Lastly comparing birth rate with school life expectancy we can see that in Norway school life expectancy is 18 years, while its birth rate is 10,8. Moreover in Somalia, school life expectancy is 3 years, and the birth rate is 41,45. This evidence strongly recommends there is a correlation between birth rate and school life expectancy.

Conclusion:

My conclusion states that high birth rates have no correlation with a Catholic religion. Other variables do however affect the total birth rate. GDP – per capita, poverty line, school life expectancy and infant mortality rate do have a significant impact on the birth rate. Developed countries like Norway, Spain and Italy have a stable environment and therefore there is no need for high birth rate since the children will survive. Moreover in less developed countries like Somalia, Mexico and Brazil there is not a stable environment, therefore they produce more children cause not all of them might survive.

Daniel Joesok Kvalsvik - Assignment #3: Birth rate and ideology

In this assignment I will examine the validity of the assumption concerning that nations with large Catholic populations would have birth rates which reflect an absence of birth control measures. I will also be examining in regards of nations with no significant population that is prohibited from using artificial birth control measures would have lower birth rates. To do this I will collect statistical data from CIA World Factbook for 6 nations which have a high percentage of Catholic citizens (65% or more) – I have chosen Panama, Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Haiti and Brazil. To examine the second assumption I will collect data of 3 nations which do not have a notable Catholic population (less than 5%) – I have chosen Norway, Barbados and Singapore.

Further on, I will have a look at their birth rates in context with average income and average education level.

COUNTRY	CATHOLIC CITIZENS	BIRTH RATES (OF 1,000 POPULATION)	AVERAGE INCOME (PER CAPITA)	SCHOOL LIFE EXPECTANCY (YEARS)
Panama	85,0 %	18,91	$ 15,900	13
Philippines	82,9 %	24,62	$ 4,500	11
Mexico	82,7 %	18,61	$ 15,600	14
Italy	80,0 %	8,94	$ 30,600	16
Haiti	80,0 %	23,35	$ 1,300	N/A
Brazil	73,6 %	14,97	$ 12,100	14
Norway	1,0 %	10,80	$ 55,900	18
Barbados	4,2 %	12,10	$ 61,400	17
Singapore	4,8 %	7,91	$ 25,800	N/A

Conclusion:

Having a look on catholic citizens and birth rates it is difficult to see an overall trend, but I will say that the percentage of Catholic citizens is not correlated with the birth rate.

Birth rate considered to average income per capita seems to play a greater role than the original assumption. The countries with high income per capita have low birth rate, and the countries with low income per capita have high birth rate. From my point of view, the reason is that people in the countries with low income per capita want to have more children to take care of you since they can be a resource. To summarize, there is a strong correlation between birth rate and average income per capita.

Also birth rate considered to school life expectancy (primary to tertiary education) shows us an overall trend. There is a correlation between this two mentioned variables, but not as strong as the previous context. The overall reason to why there is a correlation is that people with higher educational level “prioritize” the education instead of getting a baby. When you are studying, I think you neither have time or money to get a baby. Seen from a woman perspective, they roughly have to choose between family and education. This explains why we can see at correlation between birth rate and school life expectancy.

All in all, does Catholic prohibition really have an influence on birth control use reflected in a high birth rate? In a small degree – we have now seen other factors playing a greater role in birth rate, such as income and education. The technologically conservative prohibition against birth control among Catholic populations seems not to exist in behavior.

Simen Lossius Ellefsen - Assignment #3: Birth rate and ideology

Below I will present my findings from the research. And, I will draw a conclusion based on whether high birth rates is influenced by prohibition towards contraceptives in Catholicism, or if it is influenced by other factors.

Country	% of Catholics	Birth rate of 1,000 population	Death rate of 1,000 population	Infant Mortality Rate, 1,000 live births	Life expectancy at birth	Average Income	Average Educational level	Unemployment rate
Italy	80	8.94	10.01	3.33	81.95	$24,216	16	10.6
Poland	89.8	9.88	10.31	6.3	76.45	$20,900	15	12.8
Argentina	92	17.12	7.35	10.24	77.32	$18,400	16	7.2
Spain	94	10.14	8.94	3.35	81.37	$22,847	17	25.1
Brazil	73.6	14.97	6.51	19.83	73.02	$12,100	14	5.5
Colombia	90	16.98	5.33	15.46	75.02	$11,000	14	10.4
Norway	<1	10.8	9.21	3.47	80.44	$55,900	18	3.2
Niger	<1	46.84	13.07	87.98	54.34	$800	5	N/A
Iceland	2.5	13.15	7.07	3.17	81.11	$39,900	18	6

The countries in «bold» are the ones without a high percentage of Catholicism

Conclusion

After examining the data from my chart, where six out of nine countries are characterized as Catholic, I could not find a significant correlation between the ideology and high birth rate. However, there were some other factors which correlated with high birth rates. I will now look further into these.

Due to the prohibition of artificial birth control in the Catholic society, one might assume that the lack of contraceptives could cause a high birth rate among Catholics. However, this is not correct. There seems to be no correlation between the ideology and high birth rates. The main factor for causing high birth rate, according to my research, is the infant mortality. The high rate of infant mortality seems to be influenced by the lack of development and poverty. E.g., the people of Niger who suffers from a high infant mortality rate, needs to give multiple births in order to succeed with “spreading” the genes on. Therefore creating high birth rates. This seems to be equally in the Catholic countries which do have a birth rate over the average, e.g Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. However, many of these countries is industrialized, but a lot of the population still lives in poverty.

Another factor which arise in the face of high birth rates is income. The lower the average income is, the the higher the birth rates are. If you look at Spain, Italy, Norway and Iceland, you will se that they have relative high average income, and thus have low birth rates. So, as a generalization, one may say that high birth rates is influenced by factors as poverty and underdevelopment, and not by religion.

References:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html