As a Human Geography teacher one of the main issues I must focus on throughout the course is population growth. We constantly look at population numbers and focus on the amount of resources that will be necessary to maintain an adequate standard of living. Some parts of the world have population growth they can sustain due to economic development, others located in the less developed countries can’t provide for the current population, much less a rapidly growing one. Today my focus on population growth is less about long term survival but more so about how one child can fit into the general patterns. The reason I’m focusing on this particular element is because my wife and I welcomed our third child into the world today.
Total fertility rate (TFR) is defined as the average number of children a woman will have during her childbearing years. The current TFR in the United States is 2.01, lower than what is considered the replacement rate of 2.1 to achieve zero population growth or when a population maintains itself at the current level. This being our third child my wife has exceeded the average and ever so slightly nudged our population growth rate upward. My newborn daughter also counts towards another statistic, the crude birth rate. Crude birth rate (CBR) is the number of children below the age of 1 out of the average 1000 people in a population, in the United States the current CBR is 13.42.
My daughter has also contributed to a significant demographic trend, the increasing minority population. My family background is Cuban and my wife’s family is of Colombian origin, making us part of the largest minority group in the country, Hispanics. In 2012 the Census Bureau put out a report stating that, for the first time in US history, white births accounted for less than half of all children born the previous year. This trend is only expected to accelerate in the future as the white population is on average significantly older than the Hispanic population.
As the proud parent of three beautiful and healthy children I see my family as a blessing that I cherish every day. At the same time, as a human geographer I must constantly remind myself to take a step back and analyze events, people, my family, and even myself in terms of the overall makeup of society.