Birth rates and death rates together determine the population of a country. A country or region’s birth rate is calculated by considering the number of live births per 1000 population with respect to the time period measured in years. The birth rate is called natality and has a lot to do with demonstrating a country’s present development scenario and future.
According to the World Health Organisation, countries should know their birth rate and death rate to have well functioning. Knowing birth rate using statistics is better as compared to censuses because the demographic birth rate is taken every 10 years, thus they’re not the best source of data for birth rate. In contrast, accurate online statistics services like birth clocks are the closest possible to live updates on births recorded around the world.
This gives real-time updates on the increasing population of the world, helps you understand which current phenomena are impacting live birth rates, help you predict and prevent similar situations in the future. For instance, a gas leak tragedy in an area can lead to several mortal births of babies, and if this is noted in time, a system of better measures can be put into practice. When compared to the population, birth rates statistics also help us determine how sound the medical and healthcare facilities of different regions are.
The global birth rate in 2016 was calculated to be 18.5 births per 1000 total population whereas the death rate was calculated to be 7.8 per 1,000. The resulting RNI (Rate of Natural Increase) was thus 1.6 percent. The 2016 global birth demographics indicated that approximately 4 babies were born every second or about 256 births in a minute! Despite the good looking figures, a comparison to the statistics of 2012 and 2007 reveals that the birth rate had gone significantly lower by over 1 point in the decade.
A higher birth rate indicates a healthy country, however, it can have a negative impact on an already bustling population struggling to survive under limited resources. For instance, in developing countries, children are forced to illegally do laborious jobs or resort to street begging because the families on the lower side of the income graphs are not able to support their children. In these countries, birth rates are higher due to the lack of access to contraceptives, sex education, and family planning.