Question

The country that shows negative population growth rate is
A. Brazil
B. France
C. Sweden
D. America

Answer 1

Hint: Generally, all the member states of the council of Europe have a fertility rate which is far below the generation replacement rate.

Complete answer: A negative growth rate i.e. (less than 0) signifies that a population size is getting smaller, as the number of people inhabiting that particular country is decreasing gradually.
1. This negative natural population growth essentially means that these countries are facing more deaths than births or an equal number of deaths as well as births. Interestingly, this population size figure does not include the effects caused by both immigration and emigration.
2. Such a drastic reduction over time in any region's population can be easily caused by any adverse event like an infectious disease, famine, and war or even by sub-replacement fertility, persistent low natality rates, or high mortality rates, and in some of the cases continued emigration.
3. The term "population" used here is solely based on the de facto definition of population. This includes all the residents regardless of legality of their citizenship. This implies that the population count considered is inclusive of the sum total of changes from both immigration and emigration.
4. In the cases of countries such as Germany, Italy and Sweden, this negative population growth rate is particularly due to the alarming low rates of fertility (i.e. 1.37 children per woman for Germany, and 1.21 for that of Italy) and immigration is used to maintain a pseudo-stable population level.

So, the correct answer is C. Sweden.

Note: No population of organisms can grow uncontrollably, and this includes humans. All populations have a limit after which it becomes stagnant or declines due to various limiting factors.