Another way to assess demographic change is to analyze death rates: the number of deaths per year per 1000 people (Figure 3.5). Of course, death is a natural part of the life cycle, and there is no way to achieve a death rate of zero. But geographically speaking, death comes in different forms. In the developed world, most people die of age-induced degenerative conditions, such as heart disease, or from maladies caused by industrial pollution of the environment. Many types of cancer fall into the latter category. By contrast, contagious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and diarrheal diseases are a leading cause of death in poorer countries. Civil warfare, inadequate health services, and the age structure of a country’s population will also affect its death rate.

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Some of the world’s highest death rates occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest world region and most afflicted by life-threatening diseases and civil strife (Figure 3.6 illustrates the geography of HIV/AIDS). Ingenrral, deathratesof more than 20 per 1000 people are uncommon today. The world’s highest death rate as of 2013—just over 17 per 1000 people—was found in South Africa, and is primarily the result of a very high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. South Africa is the country with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. High death rates are also found in eastern European nations—with Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Russia, for instance, ranked second, eighth, and tenth in the world in 2013—thanks to a collapsing public health care system in the post-Soviet era, environmental contamination and increased cancer incidence, poor health choices including smoking and alcohol consumption, and very high rates of diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

By contrast, the American tropics generally have rather low death rates, as does the desert belt across North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia. In these regions, the predominantly young population suppresses the death rate. Compared to South Africa, Paraguay’s death rate of only 4.6 per 1000 seems quite low. Because of its older population structure, the average death rate in the European Union is 10.5 per 1000. Australia, Canada, and the United States, which continue to attract young immigrants, have lower death rates than most of Europe. Canada’s death rate, for instance, is slightly less than 8 people per 1000.

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