To conduct a useful analysis of population and its interaction with economic development, it is necessary to understand a few basic concepts and terms. Most of what we study in this section are<br>just definitions, and with a little patience, they are very easy to understand. These definitions set down the language in which we discuss demographic issues. Fundamental to the study of population is the notion of birth rates and death rates. These are normally expressed as numbers per thousand of the population. Thus, if we say that the birth rate of Sri Lanka is 20 per 1,000, this means that in each year, Sri Lanka adds 20 newborn babies for every thousand members of the population. Likewise, a death rate of 14 per 1,000 means that in each year, an average of 14 people die for every 1,000 members of the population. The population growth rate is the birth rate minus the death rate. Even though this works out as a number per 1,000 (6 in our example above), it is customary to express population growth rates in percentages. Thus, the population growth rate is 0.6% per annum in our example.
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