I keep hearing that Australia’s population is so low due to uninhibitle land. Yet they have a very generous immigration attitude and there’s no child limit that I’m aware of. How can/does geography make any difference?
In: 1468
Natural population growth is somewhat limited since it takes time for babies to grow up and have kids of their own. Biologically (and societally) it was not uncommon for the average woman to have more than 6-7 children but that sort of appears to be the upper limit (it takes 9 months gestation and takes a toll on the human body etc). Even at those rates of fertility, infant mortality and poor healthcare means that populations rise at about 3-6% annually.
Today, there is no country that grows faster than 5% annually.
Consider also that nearly all the modern stuff we are used to were not widely available 100 years ago – especially things like medicine, modern fertilizers, wide spread electrification, easy transportation etc. These are all constraints on population growth since people die more often, food cannot be made available in remote locations etc etc.
Australia started with a low population, does not have lots of land (relative to the size) good for agriculture, has inhospitable climate and environment without technology.
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