Mission: Development of a highly competitive human resource, cutting-edge scientific knowledge and innovative technologies for sustainable communities and environment
Frank Notestein: 'In 1945, a demographer pointed out that a typical pattern of falling death rates and birth rates due to improved living conditions usually accompanies economic development. He called this pattern the demographic transition from high birth and death rates to lower birth and death rates'
Figure 1 illustrates an idealized model of a demographic transition, often used to explain connections between population growth and economic development
Economic and social conditions change mortality and births
Stage I represents conditions in a pre-modern society with death rates around 30 per 1,000 people. Stage II brings better jobs, sanitation, medical care, and improved living standards, leading to rapid decrease in death rates. Populations overgrow during Stages II and III when death rates have fallen but birth rates remain high. In Stage IV, both birth and death rates are low, often a third or less than those in the predevelopment era in developed countries
The continuing debate in the Philippine Congress about funding the Social Security system is due to the demographic transition, with many young people relative to older people. In the future, there will be more older people living longer and fewer younger workers
Factors that help stabilize populations include growing prosperity, urbanization, and social reforms reducing the need for large families, technology advancements, and historical patterns in less-developed countries
The optimistic (low) projection recommends that the world population stabilize just below 8 billion by 2050 and then drop back below current levels by the end of the century
Mission: Development of a highly competitive human resource, cutting-edge scientific knowledge and innovative technologies for sustainable communities and environment
Society needs to replace members who die or become incapacitated, often codified in cultural or religious values that encourage bearing and raising children
Some societies look upon families with few or no children with pity or contempt, and the idea of deliberately controlling fertility may be shocking or taboo