Neolithic demographic transition

{{Short description|Period of rapid population growth after the adoption of agriculture by prehistoric societies}}

The Neolithic demographic transition was a period of rapid population growth following the adoption of agriculture by prehistoric societies (the Neolithic Revolution). It was a demographic transition caused by an abrupt increase in birth rates due to the increased food supply and decreased mobility of farmers compared to foragers. Eventually the mortality rate in farming societies also increased to the point where the population stabilised again, possibly because settling down in one place, in close proximity to animals, encouraged the spread of zoonotic and waterborne diseases. The transition is estimated to have taken about a thousand years on average,{{Cite journal|last=Bocquet-Appel|first=Jean-Pierre|author-link=Jean-Pierre Boucquet-Appel|year=2011|title=When the World's Population Took Off: The Springboard of the Neolithic Demographic Transition|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1208880|journal=Science|language=en|volume=333|issue=6042|pages=560–561|doi=10.1126/science.1208880|issn=0036-8075|pmid=21798934|bibcode=2011Sci...333..560B|s2cid=29655920|url-access=subscription}} although the onset and duration of the transition varied widely in the different parts of the world.

Evidence for the Neolithic demographic transition include an increase in juvenile skeletons in prehistoric cemeteries and a general increase in the density of archaeological remains following the start of the Neolithic. It is known to have occurred in Southwest Asia (c. 9500–6500 BCE),{{Cite book|last1=Bellwood|first1=Peter|chapter=The Expansions of Farming Societies and the Role of the Neolithic Demographic Transition|date=2008|title=The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences|pages=13–34|editor-last=Bocquet-Appel|editor-first=Jean-Pierre|publisher=Springer Netherlands|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8539-0_2|isbn=978-1-4020-8539-0|last2=Oxenham|first2=Marc|editor2-last=Bar-Yosef|editor2-first=Ofer}}{{Cite book|last1=Guerrero|first1=Emma|chapter=The Signal of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Levant|date=2008|title=The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences|pages=57–80|editor-last=Bocquet-Appel|editor-first=Jean-Pierre|publisher=Springer Netherlands|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8539-0_4|isbn=978-1-4020-8538-3|last2=Naji|first2=Stephan|last3=Bocquet-Appel|first3=Jean-Pierre|editor2-last=Bar-Yosef|editor2-first=Ofer}} Europe (c. 7000 BCE),{{Cite journal|last1=Downey|first1=Sean S.|last2=Bocaege|first2=Emmy|last3=Kerig|first3=Tim|last4=Edinborough|first4=Kevan|last5=Shennan|first5=Stephen|year=2014|title=The Neolithic Demographic Transition in Europe: Correlation with Juvenility Index Supports Interpretation of the Summed Calibrated Radiocarbon Date Probability Distribution (SCDPD) as a Valid Demographic Proxy|journal=PLOS ONE|language=en|volume=9|issue=8|pages=e105730|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0105730|issn=1932-6203|pmc=4143272|pmid=25153481|bibcode=2014PLoSO...9j5730D|doi-access=free}} East Asia (c. 6000–2500 BCE), Southeast Asia (c. 2500–1500 BCE),{{Cite journal|last1=Willis|first1=Anna|last2=Oxenham|first2=Marc F.|date=2013|title=The neolithic demographic transition and oral health: The Southeast Asian experience|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|language=en|volume=152|issue=2|pages=197–208|doi=10.1002/ajpa.22343|pmid=24000119|issn=1096-8644}} and the American Southwest (c. 1100 BCE – 1000 CE).{{Cite journal|last1=Kohler|first1=Timothy A.|last2=Reese|first2=Kelsey M.|year=2014|title=Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=111|issue=28|pages=10101–10106|doi=10.1073/pnas.1404367111|issn=0027-8424|pmid=24982134|pmc=4104847|bibcode=2014PNAS..11110101K|doi-access=free}}

The Neolithic demographic transition was the inverse of the contemporary demographic transition, a similar episode of population growth that occurred after the Industrial Revolution, which began because of decreased mortality and ended due to decreased fertility.