“Population Essay – counts as a test grade
How are countries designated as MDCs or LDCs? What creates those specific qualities in each classification of countries? (birthrate, death rate/life expectancy/infant mortality rate, literacy rate, per capita GDP or per capital income, percentage of population living below US $2 per day)
I. Structure (15 points)
a. Essay should be a minimum of two pages typed, double-spaced
b. No more than 12 point size
c. One inch margins
d. Times New Roman font
e. Proper grammar and spelling
II. Rough Draft with peer editing (15 points)
III. Format for the essay
a. First paragraph (10 points) – Introductory Paragraph
i. Thesis statement (restate the prompt)
ii. Topic of the 2nd paragraph
iii. Topic of the 3rd paragraph
b. Second paragraph (25 points)
i. Topic sentence – What is the entire paragraph about?
ii. Multiple facts and explanation
c. Third paragraph (25 points)
i. Topic sentence – What is the entire paragraph about?
ii. Multiple facts with explanation
d. Conclusion ( 10 points)
The above information is typed in the format required. Please check your final draft to make sure that the font size, type, and spacing match.

Outline
1. Introductory Paragraph (maximum of 3 sentence—should never be longer than a body paragraph.)
I. Thesis statement
II. Topic of paragraph 2
III. Topic of paragraph 3
2. Paragraph 2
I. Topic Sentence
II. Facts (provable numbers) and explanation about “more developed countries”.(Numbers and explanations should be matched together in the paragraphs; with 5 statistics and 5 explanations)
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3. Paragraph 3
I. Topic Sentence
II. Facts (provable numbers) and explanation about “less developed countries”.
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4. Concluding Paragraph ( minimum 3 sentences)
I. Thesis stated in a different way

Fluctuating death rates caused by: war, medicine, sanitation, disease, food sources

Fluctuating birth rates caused by: later marriages, war, food sources, education of women, child labor laws, children as a liability rather than an asset, urban settings, industrialization, rising aspirations, job opportunities, contraceptive devices, individualism

1. Less Developed Countries (LDCs) or developing countries have certain characteristics: less productive economically, low per capita GDP, high birthrates, low literacy rates.
a. low per capita GDP or low per capital income (GNIPPP)– with a lower level of education, LDCs do not have industries or services sell many goods – the majority of people work in agriculture and have lower levels of education, therefore, do not have jobs that have high salaries
c. low literacy rates – LDC governments do not have money to provide schools; or the society as a whole does not value eduation
d. high birth rates – children in LDCs have value to bring income into the family, either by working at factories, working on the family farm, or begging; with a high death rate and high infant mortality rate, families have more children to make sure some survive; since the governments do not provide retirement, the children (particularly the eldest boy child) will have to take care of their parents when they cannot take care of themselves; large families are sometimes the only way a woman has value or status in society
e. low life expectancy or high death rates – wars, poor food sources, disease, poor medical care, poor sanitation
f. low infant mortality rates – poor healthcare/medicine; poor health of mothers; lack of food
g. high poverty level – a few people have most of the wealth and most of the people are very poor

2. More Developed Countries (MDCs) ,developed countries or the 1st world countries or the core countries, have certain characteristics which indicated they are the richest countries with the highest standard of living: high per capita GDP or income, high literacy rates, low birth rates, high life expectancies, low death rates, low infant mortality rates, and a low percentage of people that live below the income level of U.S. $2 a day
a. high per capita GDP or high per capital income (GNIPPP) – the majority of people in MDCs have a higher level of education and, therefore, are qualified to make a higher level of goods or service; MDCs either have, or can afford, raw materials with which to make goods; the majority of people in MDCs have a higher level of education and, therefore, are qualified to take jobs that pay higher salaries; often both parents work which, also, raises the total income of the country
b. high literacy rates – countries that are doing well can afford to invest in schools and raise the level of education; in addition, often those countries that have already become MDCs, contained people that felt that education was important enough to fund; often, these are democracies where the people have a say in what the level of education will be
c. low birth rates – a high level of education will, generally, provide women with career options; some couples may choose to put off having children while they establish their careers; in an urbanized, educated society, children are a liability (they cannot work or beg to bring in money for the family)
d. high life expectancy or low death rates – fewer wars, better food sources, less disease, better medical care, better sanitation,
e. low infant mortality rates – better healthcare/medicine; less disease
f. low poverty level – in more developed countries, the income is more evenly distributed and there will be fewer people living in poverty (there will be a lower, middle, and upper class)

“Rich Man, Poor Man: Our World Divided” (TEKS 9A, 22B-C)
Our world today is divided between countries which have developed their human and natural resources and have become technological societies and those that have not. Developing nations (LDCs), which include half the world’s people, need to invest money in human resources and expand their production of natural resources.
The technological world (MDCs, core, developed, or first world) includes most of the countries in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The technological world consists of the wealthy, productive, politically power countries which are in the middle latitudes and in the northern and western hemispheres (except for Australia, New Zealand, and Japan).
The main characteristics of the technological world are that most of the people have a high standard of living. The people are relatively well off with a high per capita GDP. Medical science and health care are advanced and people live long lives. Most people are well educated and, therefore, have a high literacy rate. The population rate is growing slowly and birth and death rates are low. Seventy-five percent of the people will live in urban areas. Eighty-five percent of the world’s energy is consumed by people in the technological world. Most of these areas impose controls on the environment to insure public health and safety. Very few of the people work in agriculture. They are industrialized countries with a high degree of technology. The tertiary [service] and quaternary [information technology] sectors of their economies are large and growing. Income is distributed fairly equally; there is an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class of people.
The developing world (LDCs, third world, or periphery) includes most of the countries located in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, China, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The developing world has a tropical or subtropical environment, generally located in the low latitudes between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south of the equator, except for China. More than ¾ of the world’s people live in the developing world. These people are poor, often practice subsistence agriculture, and have rapidly growing populations.
The main characteristic of the Developing World is that they are relatively poor. Their health care systems are weak and the life span is very short compared to the industrialized world. Most of the people are not well educated. The population is growing rapidly so that their population doubles at a rate faster than they can expand needed services and resources. Many people live in poverty-stricken rural or urban areas. Most people work in agriculture. Energy consumption is low. Transportation and communications networks are not well developed. Few environmental controls are in place or are enforced. The gap between rich and poor within developing countries is great: there is a small elite or upper class while the majority of people are in the poor, lower, working class. Often the middle class, if it exists, is very, very small. Most of these counties are now struggling to develop human resourced by investing in education, health, and other social services. Many of these countries need to create new jobs for their rapidly expanding populations by exploiting natural resources and building industry. These countries are afflicted by debt, exacerbated by natural disasters and/or war. Few countries in the developing world have enough money to pay for the staggering cost of modernization.
There are some exceptions. China is a rapidly developing nation which is predicted to become a world economic power in twenty years. Mexico is making progress to improve the standard of living for its people. But many other countries, despite rich resources, are not able to improve the standard of living for most of their population.