The fifth stage of Rostow’s Stages of Development is characterized by widespread consumerism and mass consumption. According to Rostow this is the final stage in the development of a country’s economy.

Introduction of investment from external sources is a characteristic of the second stage of Rostow’s model so we can eliminate that answer choice and the one that reads “all of these answers are correct.” Although, social and political change can accompany the third stage of Rostow’s model they do not define it in the way that large-scale investment in manufacturing and infrastructure do. In Rostow’s model the third stage represents the biggest revolutionary change in a country’s economic development. It is when the majority of employment transitions from primary economic activities to secondary economic activities - as has happened recently in China.

Rostow’s model of Stages of Development has been widely criticized by environmentalists and economic geographers for a variety of reasons. Rostow postulated his theory at a time before the impact of climate change and the importance of renewable resources was well understood. He is still, however, widely criticized by environmentalists because he equates the highest level of development with the mass consumption of resources.

Rostow’s model of Stages of Development does not account for deindustrialization at all. This is particularly interesting because deindustrialization in the developed world occurred almost immediately after Rostow published his model, meaning he was unable to foresee a development that was only a few years around the corner.

When you think of it, Rostow's stages are pretty intuitive. It all starts with traditional society, wherein there is little social mobility or technology, and a lot of agriculture. After meeting the pre-conditions, a society can then move into the take-off stage, wherein urbanization, industrialization, and technological advances occurs in response to external demand for raw materials and investment in production is secured. As take-off picks up speed, it becomes a drive to maturity, wherein diversification of industries, development methods, and a growing social infrastructure rise to meet the demands of the competition and expansion. Finally, an industrial economy takes hold, and social infrastructure gives way to accessibility and consumer culture: the Age of Mass Consumption

Because it drastically changed economic production, the Industrial Revolution transformed the nature of population distribution. The sweeping changes happened immediately because they were so closely linked to the drastic transformation in factory work. Beginning first and most noticeably in the Northern European nations, people moved more and more to large cities that sprang up inland based on rail networks and industrial centers.

The Industrial Revolution truly took off in England's Midlands, especially around the city of Manchester, after a few technological innovations in the textile industry. These made clothing, which used to be made at home expensively, cheap and easy to attain. This revolution caused new factory jobs to be available and reduced the need for people working on farms, which allowed people to leave the countryside and flock to cities.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution began in northern England. It spread fairly quickly to southern England and then spread throughout the continent via Belgium, northern France, and Germany.

By the first half of the twentieth century Germany, the United States of America, Russia, and Japan (along with France and the United Kingdom) were the major industrial centers of the world. China has only recently undergone its own rapid industrial revolution and is currently transitioning towards a consumer-based economy.

The Industrial Revolution arrived in Germany during the 1850s and quickly exploded. By the 1860s Germany’s economy was fully industrial and quickly catching up to Great Britain. In 1871 the German states were finally unified and industrialization progressed more rapidly, by the turn of the century the German industrial capacity was the strongest in the world.