I hope this helps: The DTM, or Demographic Transition Model, are different stages based off of births and deaths. There are no countries in stage 1, very poor countries in stage 2, developing countries in stage 3, and developed countries in stages 4 and 5. DTM stage 2 has an extremely high birth rate and low death rate which leads to a largely increasing population. Stage 3 has a moderately increasing population because the extremely high birth rate has decreased some and the death rate has increased. By Stage 4 the population has become stable and leveled out due to the birth and death rate being around even. The population still may be increasing just a little bit but not much. Stage 5 is when the population begins to decrease because of such a small amount of births and an increasing amount of deaths due to a widespread disease.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is in stage two for multiple reasons. The extremely high birth rate and total fertility rate of 4.53 children per woman at the current time has led to an extreme amount of children. Making most of the money that is made by the parents, spent on them for necessities such as food and clothing. Such a high dependency ratio leads to the rest of the population trying to provide for the majority and not being able to spend any money on new technology or advancements. This hurts the economy and keeps it from advancing into an industrial revolution where it could become a stage 3 country. The high prices of health care and medical bills keeps regular citizens from being able to get basic needs such as medicine or being able to see a doctor when they are sick. This leads to a one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the world, high infant and maternal mortality rates, and a high amount of children who are malnourished. If it were to be able to advance to stage three the life expectancy will have to increase, meaning more doctors, medicine, and cheaper healthcare. Another thing that is holding the DRC in stage 2 is a war that is occurring in the eastern provinces of the country. This leads to more deaths which is another reason for the low life expectancy. People have so many kids in the DRC because they need them to farm and work to make money to support the family. Once people get the technology to make farming mechanized they will begin to have less kids, making a better economy, which leads to chances for an industrial and medical revolution, and that makes life expediencies in the country long, which will eventually push them into stage 3 of the demographic transition model.
