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Assignment 5
 

Assignment 5

Even though a country may have fertility and mortality rates that give a zero or negative growth rate, population size may increase for many years before leveling off or decreasing. Demographers call this demographic momentum. The following questions illustrate this phenomenon as you work within DemographyLab.
1 .       Simulate population growth in China for 100 years. How long does it take for the population size of China to begin decreasing? Does any other country exhibit a similar phenomenon?  



2 .       Choosing a country with a negative growth rate, try modifying its 1998 population structure so it will exhibit demographic momentum.  



3 .       Propose a hypothesis about what causes demographic momentum. Test your hypothesis by altering the default values of any country and simulating it in DemographyLab. Design an experiment to illustrate negative demographic momentum (a decrease in population size followed by a long-term increase).  








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