Sort each feature by whether it characterises stage 2 of the demographic transition or stage 4.

Stage 2: Death rates fall sharply while birth rates remain high, The age pyramid has a very wide base and a narrow top, The fastest population growth of the whole sequence

Stage 4: Both rates are low and growth is close to zero, Public debate concentrates on ageing and pension funding

The last pair is the political consequence of the demographic one. A stage 2 society argues about feeding and schooling a young population; a stage 4 society argues about funding an old one. Both arguments are usually conducted as though the age structure were a policy choice rather than the arithmetic of decisions made forty years earlier.