ABSTRACT
The modern rise of population in. Latin America confounds demographic theorists and exasperates social planners. The source of the surging rates of population growth is evident to everyone: a singularly, unprecedented decline in mortality with no apparent adjustment in fertility. For more than two decades, following the destruction of the traditional population equilibrium, the prospects for dampening growth rates have appeared dim. Population experts have cast about for historical precedents and the latest demographic data to divine the likely course of future trends. According to some analysts the historical experiences of other cultures are too diverse at best or, even worse, irrelevant to provide clues to the evolution of Latin American populations. At the same time contradictory conclusions are deduced from the same data by competent specialists.
