Dega Gebre

Dega Gebre

Soc. 166

Contributing Factors to Birth Control

                The six countries that I have chosen to analyze are countries with an extremely high percentage of citizens whom identify themselves as Catholic or practice the Catholic religion. The countries and stats that I analyzed are below in a bullet point format for simplicity. There were many statistics to choose from, so I chose the statistics that I believed were most relevant and helpful in deciphering whether or not countries having a high percentage of Catholicism correlate to having a high birthrate. My findings are listed below:

Argentina:

·         Population: 42,192,494

·         % of Population Catholic: 92-93%

·         Birth Rate: 17.34 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.29

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 77.14 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate: 10.52 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 30%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 97.2%

France:

·         Population: 65,630,692

·         % of Population Catholic: 83-88%

·         Birth Rate: 12.72 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.08

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 81.46 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate: 3.37 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 6.2%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 99%

Ireland:

·         Population: 4,722,028

·         % of Population Catholic: 87.4%

·         Birth Rate: 15.81 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.01

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 80.32 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate:  3.81 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 5.5%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 99%

Mexico:

·         Population: 114,975,406

·         % of Population Catholic: 76.5%

·         Birth Rate: 18.87 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.27

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 76.66 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate: 16.77  Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 51.3%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 86.1%

Poland:

·         Population: 38,415,284

·         % of Population Catholic: 89.8%

·         Birth Rate: 9.96 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 1.31

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 76.25 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate:  6.42 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 17%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 99.5%

Spain:

·         Population: 47,042,984

·         % of Population Catholic: 94%

·         Birth Rate: 10.4 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 1.48

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 81.27 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate:  3.37 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 19.8%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 97.7%

Three Countries with Less Than 5% Catholics:

Eritrea:

·         Population: 6,086,495

·         % of Population Catholic: 3.34%

·         Birth Rate: 32.1 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 4.37

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 62.86 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate: 40.34 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 50%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 67.8%

Jamaica:

·         Population: 2,889,187

·         % of Population Catholic: 2.6%

·         Birth Rate: 18.89 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.12

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 73.43 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate: 14.3  Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 16.5%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 87.9%

Indonesia:

·         Population: 248,645,008

·         % of Population Catholic: 3%

·         Birth Rate: 17.76 births/1000 Population

·         Total Births/Woman: 2.23

·         Life Expectancy at Birth: 71.62 yrs.

·         Infant Mortality Rate:  26.99 Deaths/1000 Births

·         Population Below Poverty Line: 12.5%

·         Literacy (age 15 and older who can read and write): 90.4

     I have used a wide array of information and data to justify my conclusion that there is no direct correlation between the prevalence of birth control and birth rates. Based on this conclusion, I can confidently assert that countries with a high Catholic population do not have higher birth rates due to lack of birth control. The notion that countries will have higher birth rates due to banning birth control can be seen to be proven wrong in this analysis. As a matter of fact, Spain, which has the highest percentage of Catholics within its population, has a lower birth rate per 1000 people than Mexico, which has the highest birth rate per 1000 people but the lowest percentage of Catholics in its population.

     Also, the proposed correlation is even more debunked when we take into account countries with less than 5% Catholics within their population. Jamaica, with only 2.6% of its population being Catholic, has roughly the same amount of births per 1000 people, 18.89 compared to Mexico’s 18.87.

     This discrepancy in the way of thinking and approaching such a topic leads me to make some correlations myself that I believe are justified through the data provided. It seems to me that countries with a high infant mortality rate have a higher birth rate, among countries with a large Catholic population. This statistic is even more pronounced when the countries with high infant mortality rates with large populations of Catholics are compared to the three countries with low populations of Catholics. Another correlation, although not as strong, is countries with a lower literacy rate then 95% seem to have higher birth rates. These statistics lead me to believe that lack of education in the relative fields and lack of adequate health institutions leads to higher birth rates, especially when compared to the seemingly false idea that countries with higher percentages of Catholicism have higher birth rates.

     Lastly, although there is a technologically conservative prohibition against birth control among Catholic populations, I do not believe that this prohibition really exists in behavior, for if it did, then the correlations would seem to be much stronger. However, as we have seen, there is not definitive correlation justifying such an idea. In behavior, condoms, which work as birth control to an extent, still allow couples and people to be sexually promiscuous, which is what seems the ban on contraception in Catholic leaning societies are striving for.