GERMANY
EXPECTED FUTUREThe expected future for the population of Germany involves the continued dropping of the growth rate, until the population is steadily falling. Some reasons as to why the growth will continue falling would be that the crude death rate has overtaken the crude birth rate, signifying the move towards a negative growth rate for Germany. Another reason for this expected future would be the low fertility rate among German women. Past efforts by the German government to raise the fertility rate have been ineffective as more and more women decide to focus on careers rather than family, and as such the fertility rate is set to stay low, aiding the shift towards negative population growth.
PREFERRED FUTUREA preferred future for the population of Germany would be similar to the expected future. It would be similar because the expected future of Germany is prosperous for the most part, however some factors that could make the future of Germany more prosperous would be a slight increase in the population growth, to keep the population size more stable. One way to achieve this would be to increase the economic incentives to have children, such as increasing the per-child government subsidy, or to reduce overall work hours to give prospective parents more time to take care of children.
ALTERNATIVE FUTURESA possible alternative future for the population of Germany could come into fruition if the current immigration rate to Germany increases rapidly. If current world conflicts were to escalate greatly, or the economies of some developing countries were to crash, then there would be a massive increase in immigrants to developed countries such as Germany, and these immigrants tend to come from countries with higher overall fertility rates. Due to an influx of people with higher fertility rates, the birth rate of Germany would jump up above its small death rate, and as a result, the population growth of Germany would increase.
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CONGOEXPECTED FUTUREThe expected future for the population of the Congo involves the continued rapid population growth that the Congo has been experiencing, until the country develops more. A reason for this would be that most of the country still lives in rural environments where women marry early, and as such, have more years to have children. Living in these rural environments also encourages parents to have more children to help on the farm. Until the nation develops and becomes more urbanized, their rapid population growth will not wane.
PREFERRED FUTUREA preferred future for the population of the Congo would be quite different from the expected future based on present data. In the expected future, the Congo's population is set to increase rapidly for a long time, and this population growth is something that the Congo doesn't have the infrastructure for. A preferred future would be one where the population growth slows down rapidly to match pace with the development and urbanization of the country, and eventually reach a state similar to where Germany is today. One way to achieve this future would be to focus on women's rights, so that women are given a bigger share of the workforce, making them less likely to have children early. Another way would be to focus on economic growth of the country, and tapping into its latent natural resources. A more developed economy would have the infrastructure to support its population, and lead to a higher urbanized population, which tend to have less children
ALTERNATIVE FUTURES
A possible alternative future for the population of the Congo could develop depending on the status of the ongoing conflicts in the region. If these regional conflicts begin to expand to the status of a large war, this would directly affect the population of the Congo. A large war could possibly result in a very large amount of casualties, especially in remote rural areas depending on the response of the government (if the government is in a state to make any response), or the response of foreign powers or the UN. A large amount of casualties of war would vastly increase the death rate, surpassing the birth rate, and reducing the overall population of the Congo. This possible means of reducing population was brought up in "The Population Bomb" as a 'Death Rate Solution'.
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