I N T R O D U C T I O N

The developing countries of Bangladesh and Kenya have both experienced rapid fluctuations in their respective population growth rates over the past fifty years. After showing promising gradual decline for several years in the late 1990s, however, Kenyan population growth began to spike at the beginning of the current decade, most sharply from 2004-2005. Birth rates during this period increased significantly and then immediately showed a gradual decline. Likewise, Bangladesh experienced a growth rate spike between 2003-2004 -- but unlike Kenya, quickly stabilized and leveled off at around 2 percent. This is significant for a nation that had shown dramatically effective decrease during the previous two decades, reducing the population growth rate from 2.35 percent in 1981 to 1.54 percent in 2001. This website will present the problems of population growth for these two nations. It will weigh the average growth/decline, fertility and mortality rates for both countries recent history and discuss the social, political and scientific factors affecting the changes.