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.