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Rate of natural increase calculator

What do you know?

Rate of natural increase

23 per 1,000

Birth rate
32 per 1,000
Death rate
9 per 1,000
As a percentage
2.3%

Working

  1. Natural increase = birth rate − death rate = 32 − 9 = 23 per 1,000.
  2. As a percentage, divide by 10: 23 ÷ 10 = 2.3% a year.
  3. At that rate the population would double in about 70 ÷ 2.3 = 30 years, if nothing else changed.

Your result

23 per 1,000. The population grows by 2.3% a year from births and deaths alone, enough to double it in about 30 years.

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The rate of natural increase is the birth rate minus the death rate: 32 births and 9 deaths per 1,000 people is 23 per 1,000, or 2.3% a year.

Questions people ask

How do you calculate the rate of natural increase?

Take the death rate away from the birth rate. Both are per 1,000 people, so 32 − 9 = 23 per 1,000. Divide by 10 to turn it into a percentage: 2.3% a year.

Why divide by 10 to get a percentage?

A percentage is per 100 and the rates are per 1,000. 23 per 1,000 is the same as 2.3 per 100, which is 2.3%.

Can natural increase be negative?

Yes. When deaths outnumber births, as in some countries with ageing populations, there is a natural decrease. The population can still grow if enough people move in.

How does natural increase link to the demographic transition model?

It is the gap between the birth rate and death rate lines. The gap is small in stage 1, widest in stages 2 and 3 when death rates fall faster than birth rates, and small or negative again in stages 4 and 5.

Keep going

How we work this out

What it does

Enter birth and death rates, or births, deaths and population, to get the rate of natural increase per 1,000 and as a percentage.

The rate of natural increase of a population from birth and death rates per 1,000, or from numbers of births, deaths and people.

Method

  1. Birth rate = births ÷ population × 1,000; death rate likewise.
  2. Natural increase = birth rate − death rate, per 1,000 people.
  3. As a percentage: divide the rate per 1,000 by 10.
  4. Doubling time is estimated with the rule of 70: 70 ÷ the percentage growth rate.