
What stops population growth? [video] - iamwil
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/what-stops-population-growth/
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moon_of_moon
First to summarize what he says:

It used to be short life expectancies led to people having more children. Not
anymore, as most countries are in the high life expectancy group.

Basically better family planning, womens rights, and health care leads to
higher life expectancies leading to: SMALLER FAMILIES.

Now I will add:

i) Divorce laws, and strict enforcement of it. I think this contributes
heavily to lowering populations. But you need that because of point (ii)
below.

ii) The lack of religion leads to a lifestyle that breaks down the family
unit. Once the patriarchal mode of life goes out of the window, so does the
population growth. In other words, women's rights. So its a trade-off.

I'm looking at you Europe.

