mutation or innovation externally-driven structural: natural selection The last three types of change are also the only possible forms of adaptation. Current examples Global demographic shifts One of the most obvious changes currently occurring is the change in the relative global population distribution between countries. In recent decades, developing countries have become a larger proportion of the world population, increasing from 68% in 1950 to 82% in 2010, and the population of the developed countries has declined from 32% of the total world population in 1950 to 18% in 2010. China and India continue to be the largest countries, followed by the US as a distant third. However, population growth throughout the world is slowing. Population growth among developed countries has been slowing since the 1950s and is now at 0.3% annual growth. Population growth among the less developed countries excluding the least developed ones has also been slowing since 1960 and is now at 1.3% annually. Population growth among the least developed countries has slowed relatively little and is the highest at 2.7% annual growth. Gendered patterns of work and care In much of the developed world, changes from distinct men's work and women's work to more gender equal patterns have been economically important since the mid-20th century. Both men and women are considered to be great contributors to social change worldwide. See also Accelerating change Activism Alternative movement Comparative historical research Constitutional economics Critical juncture theory Culture change Decadence Global Social Change Research Project Globalization Historical sociology Industrialisation Lifestyle (sociology) Modernization theory Reform movement Reformism Revolution Secularization Social conservatism Social degeneration Social development theory Social movement Social progress Social relation Social revolution Social transformation Societal collapse Societal transformation Sociocultural evolution References Further reading Eisenstadt, SN (1973). Tradition, Change, and Modernity. Krieger Publishing. Giddens, Anthony (2006). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. Haralambos, Michael and Holborn, Martin (2008). Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. London: HarperCollins. Harper, CL (1993). Exploring Social Change. New Jersey: Engelwood Cliffs. Milstein, T. & Castro-Sotomayor, J.(2020). "Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity." London, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351068840. Talcott Parsons, The Social System, (1951) New York: The Free Press Polanyi, Karl. (1944). The Great Transformation. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. Tilly, Charles. (1988). "Misreading, then Rereading, Nineteenth-Century Social Change." Pp. 332–58 in Social Structures: A Network Approach, eds. Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tilly, Charles. (2004). Social Movements, 1768-2004. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. . Vago, Steven. (1999).