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Oh my god, I'm worried about India's population starting to decrease now .... More seriously, is there a way to look before 1960? I want to look from 1930 or s

• jdietrich 9y ago
  Until the modern era, the global birth rate was fairly constant at about six per woman. The population growth we've experienced over the last century is mostly to do with child survival. Before 1900, the child mortality rate in India was over 50%. If you need children to care for you in old age and expect most of your children to die, you're likely to have a lot of them. When child survival improved, attitudes changed. Parents no longer want three or four children to work on the family farm, they want one or two children to become doctors or engineers. Economic development and the availability of reliable contraception have made that aspiration practical. If you're interested in the topic, I can highly recommend this lecture by the late Hans Rosling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FACK2knC08E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FACK2knC08E
  • praneshp 9y ago
    Yeah, I agree, especially about the mortality rate. Anecdotally, every grandfather-aged person I know has 4+ children, but almost all father-aged ones have 2 or less (only 2 exceptions, of which 1 had twins). Thanks for the other information in your comment!