AP Photo/Shah KhalidWhen child laborers become adults, they tend to
provide support for their aging parents. In contrast, chil-
dren in highly developed countries have less value as a
source of labor because they attend school and because
less human labor is required in an industrialized society.
Furthermore, highly developed countries provide many
social services for the elderly, so the burden of their care
doesn’t fall entirely on offspring.
Many cultures place a higher value on male children
than on female children. In these societies, a woman who
bears many sons achieves a high status; thus, the social
pressure to have male children keeps the TFR high.
Religious values are another aspect of culture that
affects TFRs. Several studies done in the United States
point to differences in TFRs among Catholics, Protes-
tants, and Jews. In general, Catholic women have a higher
TFR than either Protestant or Jewish women, and women
who don’t follow any religion have the lowest TFRs of all.decline is cultural: Changing anything traditional, includ-
ing large family size, usually takes a long time.
Higher TFRs in some developing countries are also
due to the important economic and societal roles of chil-
dren. In some societies, children usually work in family
enterprises such as farming or commerce, contributing
to the family’s livelihood. The International Labour Or-
ganization estimates that, worldwide, about 176 million
children between the ages of 5 and 14 worked full time in
2008 (household chores are not counted as labor). This
estimate represents 14.5 percent of all children. Almost
all of these children live in developing countries (Figure
7.16; also see Figure 2.10). About 53 million child labor-
ers do hazardous work such as mining and construction.
These child laborers often suffer from chronic health
problems caused by the dangerous, unhealthy conditions
to which they are exposed. Children who work full time do
not have childhoods, nor do they receive education.7À}ÊV
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A Pakistani child weaves carpet in a border town near Afghanistan. The carpet industry in Pakistan commonly utilizes child labor.How might a high incidence of child
labor in a country be related to that nation’s TFR?Think Critically
176 CHAPTER 7 Human Population Change and the Environment