Why is China so heavily populated?

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Crawl and 1OOO	Why is China so heavily populated?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 15593 (03/27/09 2:00 PM) Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Sometimes I get curious about different things, and today I wondered, Why do China and India have over a billion people? Europe, on the other hand, has just under three-quarters of a billion people, and the United States has 0.3 billion. I so far was only able to find historical populations back a few decades. Both China and India's population have about doubled since the 1960's (despite China's 1 child policy enacted in the late 70's). The United States has somewhat lower growth rate; our population has doubled since the 1950's. So, maybe the explanation is just that China and India have a larger population since they started with a larger population. That could make sense. Their cultures go back hundreds of years. Europeans in America goes back to the 1600's. The indigenous American population might have been smaller because it was behind, industrially. I'd have to have population records that go back farther, though, to confirm this guess. A different explanation would be needed for the difference between China and India compared to Europe. Europe's surface area is slightly larger than China's, but is farther north. Hm. Even back in 1948, George Orwell wrote in 1984 of the "fecundity" of Eastasia. "Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire a knowledge of things--authority, reasoning, and experience--only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." -Roger Bacon
bjstrykes		#1	[-]
Posts: 1092 (03/27/09 3:29 PM) Pinpoint Accuracy Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	This article might shed some light on the subject, China's population started to increase dramatically after World War II. In 1949, Mao encouraged Chinese families to have as many children as possible. This is because the government thought the population increase would bring money to the country and help China produce more food, build a better army, develop water control, and establish communication systems (Chinese Population). For the next ten years China's population increased in millions every year. In 1949 the population was around 118 million, which increased to 540 million in 1960's. In 1970 the population increased again by 290 million, making it a massive increase of 712 million in just 20 years (Issue of Overpopulation).
Strawberry Eggs		#2	[-]
Posts: 54 (03/27/09 3:58 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hmmm...I heard that having large families was always a tradition in China. However, it's been a necessary tradtion the world over. Since infant mortality was so high in the past and people died younger, having large families was a necessity to ensure at least having one surviving child. Large numbers of children were also useful for working on farms. It's only relatively recently in industiralized nation, when more people began to live in cities and suburbs, medical technology, better sanitiation, and other ways that increased the average lifespan that having many children was no longer necessary. Mao engouraging families to have many children makes sense, especially since China began to increase industrialization around then, if memory serves me correct. "You ate the wall?? Are you insane?"-Trill, Baten Kaitos
greybob		#3	[-]
Posts: 1247 (03/27/09 5:00 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	You'd think they'd realize that more children means more mouths to feed, negating any increase in food production. I live on the internet.
MaskedSheik		#4	[-]
Posts: 892 (03/27/09 7:20 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	My mother's side is Chinese and she's one of seven kids. I wouldn't be surprised if there were something cultural about having lots of children.
Crawl and 1OOO		#5	[-]
Posts: 15593 (03/27/09 7:33 PM) Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	That used to be a Christian thing, too. My grandmother on my father's side was catholic, and they had 4 sons, 3 daughters (one of the sons died in Viet Nam). But all of those children had smaller families. My father had two kids, neither of his other brothers had children (one was a priest), and the women had some children, I don't remember how many, but maybe one or two each. My grandparents on my mother's side had "only" 2 sons, 2 daughters, but I think my grandparents had a lot of siblings. At least I think my grandfather did; they would have been extra workers on the farm. And my mother's siblings all had smaller families, too. I think my mother had the most children at 3. One of my uncles had one child and adopted another (from infancy). Another uncle had two kids, but now takes in a bunch of foster kids (older ones, I think). And I think my aunt had two children, also. And I have zero kids. I know someone who I think is a Mormon and he's about my age, and he already has about 5 kids (from about 0 to 5 years old -- the implication being that the family could still be growing). Last Edited By: Flying Omelette 03/28/09 12:59 AM. Edited 2 times.
da dick		#6	[-]
Posts: 2341 (03/28/09 10:54 AM) and my bird can sing too! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	i'm guessing it's because a lot of them used to be farmers and you could always use an extra farmhand. the cultural revolution in china promoted farming and low-tech industries a lot. but... most people flock to cities and it's the urban area where they have ridiculously dense populations. i think it wouldn't be so bad if half of them were able to make do with living in the rural or suburban areas. or if the commies are more sucessful at developing the rural places. china has a lot more fertile land compared to europe and america. middle-USA sounds as bad the sahara desert. canada is cold most of time. south america is full of suffocating jungles. northern europe has a lot of tundra and not a lot of sun... same thing with east europe. the mediterranean is supposedly lacking in resources. "We support Thaksin(& Manchester City)!" - go go, underdogs?
Crawl and 1OOO		#7	[-]
Posts: 15593 (03/28/09 3:23 PM) Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I was thinking about this at lunch, and did recall that, on my mother's side, my grandparents were in larger families than they had. My grandfather had brothers Deac, Dude, and Doc, and he must have had a couple of sisters, too, though I can't remember their names. My grandmother had brothers Basil, George, Tub, and at least one sister (I thought she might have had more sisters, though). So, maybe families of about 6 siblings. I have no idea how many siblings my grandparents on the other side would have had. "Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire a knowledge of things--authority, reasoning, and experience--only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." -Roger Bacon
Flying Omelette		#8	[-]
Posts: 20889 (03/28/09 3:34 PM) But you had to have the BIIIIIG salad! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	And I have zero kids. So do your siblings. My father was the middle child of three, and I've met his brother and sister. (I used to be best friends with his sister's daughter, but we kind of grew apart as we got older and I haven't seen nor contacted her in years.) My mother was the youngest child of seven, but as of right now, I can only recall two of her sisters and one of her brothers. I'm missing three somewhere, although I'm sure she had at least one more brother. Actually, now that I think about it, I remembered the name of another sister, but I don't know what she looks like. www.flyingomelette.com
Strawberry Eggs		#9	[-]
Posts: 54 (04/02/09 5:01 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Crawl and 1OOO wrote: That used to be a Christian thing, too. True. I'm pretty sure it says somewhere in the Bible to be frutiful or to go forth and multiple, or something alson thoes lines. My maternal grandmother, who is from Honduras, had eight children, but half of them died in infancy. Right there shows why having lots of children used to be necessary. My paternal grandmother also had many children, six or seven I believe (I don't know if any of them died). There is even a difference in number of children between members of family and the country they live in. My only living uncle lives in Honduras and has six children. My mother, however, lives here in the US and only had two children, myself included. Even my only aunt that lives here in the US had one daughter. It is already a trend for people in developing countries to have fewer children. There's a better chance for a child to grow to adulthood, it's expensive to raise kids in the US, Canda, Europe, Austrailia, Japan, etc. and few people live on farms anymore (and even thoes who do don't really need to use their kids as farm hands). I believe the US in the only developed country to still have an increasing population, and that's mostly due to immigration. Other than that, the birth rate in developed country has been going down as of late. "You ate the wall?? Are you insane?"-Trill, Baten Kaitos

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Why is China so heavily populated?

Why is China so heavily populated?

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