User:Hibrahim1955/sandbox

U.S Census Bureau Wiki Article Review
Everything in this article was relevant and appropriate to the subject matter. I felt that the history of the legal mandate for the census was covered well. The current surveys were also touched on as well as how the data gathering is done and split up by region throughout the U.S. I also felt that the equipment and technology that the U.S Census has used was a nice touch towards the end of the article. From what I can tell the article seems to be free of bias and maintains neutrality while educating the public on the census bureau in the U.S. All of the citations I clicked on were updated, working, and presented visibly. This showed me the article writers weren't trying to hide anything and had backed up their writing with a plethora of solid sources. The sources are also pretty legitimate with sources like the U.S Census Bureau itself, the NY Times, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. None of the sources seemed to be from social media or personal blogs, further justifying the credibility of the article. The talk page for this article was interesting. There was a question about what is considered white. This had a similar theme to out conversations in class about race being a social construct rather than a biological one. Someone replies by saying that race, in the context of the census, is self-identified. Categories are there to provide a choice and report data. Our class discussion differed a little in regards to this topic as we talked about the census as the most important tool demographers have. This article focuses more on what it is, what it does, and allows the reader to analyze its importance. ''' Generally, nice evaluation - a few more details could be useful, but still - good work! - Prof Hammad '''

Planned Contributions to "Rate of natural increase" article
This article is classified as "start class" or "level S" article, so it needs a substantial amount of improvement. First, I want to help improve the citations as that is lacking throughout the article. This is important as the information provided doesn't seem to be verified appropriately. The article itself is formatted poorly. I want to add different sections that include explanation of the formula, how it used, and why it is important in the realm of demography. The following are same sources I want to use to help improve this article:
 * 1) Dublin, L. I., & Lotka, A. J. (1925). On the true rate of natural increase: As exemplified by the population of the United States, 1920. Journal of the American statistical association, 20(151), 305-339.
 * 2) Lunenfeld, B. (2008). An aging world–demographics and challenges.
 * 3) Shryock, H. S., Siegel, J. S., & Larmon, E. A. (1973). The methods and materials of demography. US Bureau of the Census.
 * 4) Preston, S., Heuveline, P., & Guillot, M. (2000). Demography: measuring and modeling population processes.

Edited Draft of "Rate of natural increase"
Within the study of demography, the rate of natural increase (RNI) is classified as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.

This rate gives demographers an idea of how a certain country's population is growing. RNI excludes in-migration and out-migration, giving an indication of population growth based only on births and deaths. RNI can indicate what stage of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) a country is in. Trends in RNI can predict a country's economic stability, level of development, and other things.

The DTM explains how countries move between being a developing nation to a developed nation. A country's RNI can help determine which stage of the DTM they are in. This in turn helps policy makers and non-profit organizations, like the United Nations, determine how to allocate aid and resources. Developing countries typically have higher RNI values as they have limited infrastructure and access to healthcare which limits them to unregulated fertility levels. These countries also have higher incidence of disease and poor health outcomes leading to more deaths on top of the already high fertility. Developing countries are therefore in the earlier stages of the DTM with high fertility levels. This leads to developing countries to have high rates of natural increase. Developed countries have lower RNI values because they are usually more technologically advanced and have the necessary steps put into place to limit fertility. They also have better access to healthcare and the resources necessary to combat disease. Developed countries are there in the later stages of the DTM with low fertility levels. This usually results in developed countries having lower RNI values.

 This is nice start and you've included some good additions - it might be interesting for you to make some predictions about how the RNI can indicate what stage of the DTM a population is in and provide some examples - Prof H 

Formula
The formula used to calculated RNI by demographers is as follows:

[(Births in a year or Crude Birth Rate - Deaths in a year or Crude Death Rate) ÷ Total Population at the Start of the Year] × 100 = RNI

* the result of this equation is usually reported as a percentage*

An example of this calculation would be as follows:

[(1,600,550 births - 900,234 deaths) ÷ 32,504,906 total number of people in the population] × 100 = 2.15% RNI

Affects on RNI
The RNI of a certain country can be shaped by government policy and a country's infrastructure. Policies can either encourage an increase in birth rates or discourage an increase in birth rates. For example China's one child policy was made to decrease birth rates therefore decreasing the RNI. A country with a good infrastructure to support families, women's health, and maternal/child health would likely have lower death rates from infant or maternal mortality.