The table compares three demographic indicators – population growth, average births per woman, and life expectancy at birth – across high-, middle-, and low-income countries in 2002 and 2004.
Overall, high-income countries experienced lower population growth and birth rates, but significantly longer life expectancy. In contrast, low-income countries demonstrated the highest recorded population and birth rates, yet had the shortest life expectancy. These patterns remained largely consistent between 2002 and 2004, with only minor fluctuations.
In terms of population growth, low-income countries reported the highest growth at 2.0% in 2002, declining slightly to 1.8%. By comparison, middle-income countries maintained a stable growth rate of 0.9% in both years, while high-income countries experienced the slowest growth, declining inconsiderably from 0.8% in 2002 to 0.7% in 2004.
As for average births per woman, low-income countries dominated in fertility rate, accounting for 3.9 in 2002, decreasing slightly to 3.7. Middle-income countries recorded moderate figures of 2.2 and 2.1 respectively, whereas high-income counties had the lowest fertility rate, remaining stable at 1.7 births per woman.
Life expectancy displayed the opposite pattern. People in high-income nations lived the longest, with figures rising from 78.0 to 78.7 years. Middle-income countries saw a slight increase from 69.1, reaching 70.0 years. On the contrary, low-income nations had the lowest life expectancy, at 58.1 years in 2002, climbing modestly to 58.8 years in 2004.