A high rate of natural population growth

Background

Natural population change excludes migration. It is calculated using only Birth Rate (BR) and Death Rate (DR).

If the birth rate is 14 per 1,000 population, and the death rate is 8 per 1000 population, then the natural increase = 14 - 8 = 6. That is 6/ 1000, which is equal to 0.6%.

For Haiti the calculation in 2020 was BR = 21.4 (the 64th highest in the world) and DR = 7.29 (the 105th highest in the world). Therefore Natural Increase was 14.11 or 1.4%.

Haiti's actual growth was less because it has a net outward migration (-1.9 migrants/1,000 population [2021 est.]) so its population change is actually slightly lower than the Natural Increase suggests.

Haiti is densely populated with 339 inhabitants per square kilometer but the distribution is uneven. A high rate of population growth for several decades combined with limited arable land has resulted in unsustainable environmental pressure.

The median age of the population is 20 years, and almost 70 percent of Haiti’s people are under age 30. Half of its population is under age 20 and the contraceptive prevalence rate is only 34.3%. Haiti also has both high infant mortality (41.29 deaths/1,000 live births, or 4.1%) and maternal mortality rates (480 deaths/100,000 live births, or 0.48%).