Birth Rate and Death Rate in a Smal

Birth Rate and Death Rate in a Small Town The above graph shows the birth and death rates per thousand people in a small town during a period of a century, from 1890 through 1990. In the first 20 to 30 years, the birth rate revealed a tendency of a steady fall. Beginning from 1920, the birth rate went up sharply and reached its peak in 1940, about 70 persons born per thousand people. After that, the birth rate was decreasing and kept dropping dramatically for forty years until 1990, when it began to remain more or less stable. On the other hand, the death rate had its greatest increase in mid 1910s, up to 50 per thousand. Then from 1920 to 1960, it remained at a low level. For the following twenty years or so, there had been a moderate rise before a steady decrease took place since 1980. In most cases, as is shown by the graph, the birth rate, compared to the death rate, was kept higher, indicating that its population was increasing steadily. Then the sharp decline in the birth rate fr