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.