The graph below compares changes in the birth rates of China and the USA between 1920 and 2000.

A glance at the graph provided reveals some striking similarities between the Chinese and US

birth

rates during the period from 1920 to 2000. It is evident that both nations saw considerable fluctuations in fertility, with lows during the 1940s and highs during the 1950s. Increasing from approximately 10

percent

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per cent

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in 1920 to 15

percent

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per cent

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in 1935, China’s

birth

rate

then

plunged to a low of just 5

percent

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per cent

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in the 1940s.

This

was followed by a period of exponential growth, with fertility in the country reaching a peak of 20

percent

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per cent

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in 1950. The latter half of the century,

however

, brought a sustained decline in

this

figure. The US

birth

rate, meanwhile, fluctuated at somewhere between 11 and 13

percent

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per cent

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prior to 1940, before dropping sharply to less than 5

percent

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per cent

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in 1945. The following 5 years saw a rapid climb in

this

rate, to somewhere in the vicinity of 15

percent

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in 1950, followed by a steady fall. It is interesting to note that

while

the

birth

rates of both countries were comparable until 1950, the gap between the two widened

after

this

time as fertility in China slid away.