ASSIGNMENT #3: BIRTH RATE and IDEOLOGY

• The Papal Encyclical called the Casti Connubii (Pope Pius XI) expressed Catholic prohibition against artificial birth control in 1930.
• The Papal Encyclical Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI) re-affirmed the general position that artificial birth control is prohibited among practitioners of Catholicism, in 1968.

• One might make a reasonable assumption that nations with large Catholic populations would have birth rates which reflect an absence of birth control measures (less birth control = higher birth rate). And likewise, nations which do not have a significant population that is prohibited from using artificial birth control measures would have lower birth rates (more birth control = lower birth rate).

• YOUR ASSIGNMENT: To examine the validity of the above assumptions, your assignment is to collect statistical data for 6 nations which have a high percentage of Catholic citizens (65% or more): look at their birth rates, and perhaps investigate infant mortality rates, average lifespan, average income, average education level (anything that you suspect may have a significant influence on birth rate) . . . does a high percentage of Catholicism actually have a correlation with a high birth rate or are there other variables (such as infant mortality, poverty levels) that appear to correlate more closely with birth rates than religious belief? In class, we looked at some statistics from Mexico, Spain, and Italy. You are welcome to use these three nations in your study (as 3 of the 6 nations you examine).

• Use the online CIA World Factbook as your source for data (though you can certainly use other resources if you want): it is easy to use, the pull-down menu allows you to select a nation, and the statistics are organized by groupings such as "People and Society," etc.

• OUTGROUP: you also need to collect data of 3 other nations (3 additional nations to the 6 that you will examine = 9 nations total) which do not have a notable Catholic population (less than 5%) and who also do NOT have a population practicing a religion or ideology which may have prohibitions (for or) against birth control (for example: China has undertaken a population control program for several decades, limiting the population birth rate - this would not be a good example to use, given that their birth rate is strongly affected by this national program).

• On your team blog, each student must post the results of her/his research: which nations did you look at, what statistics are you using for your analysis, the statistics themselves, and what are your conclusions? Does Catholic prohibition really have an influence on birth control use (reflected in a high birth rate) or do other factors appear to play a greater role in birth rate (poverty, education, infant mortality rate, short average lifespan, etc.)? Though there is a technologically conservative prohibition against birth control among Catholic populations, does this prohibition really exist in behavior?

• To receive full credit, your analysis and conclusions need to be CLEARLY EXPLAINED, and justified by the data. You can present your data in list form with a text explaining your conclusions, or simply include the data in the text of your analysis.

• THIS ASSIGNMENT MUST BE ON YOUR TEAM WEBSITE BY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1st.