population explosion essay

Population Explosion Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay population explosion essay.

Population explosion refers to the number of people that live in an area. It is a major issue for developing countries. Also, the government is not taking proper measures to control this problem. Besides, it generates many issues in the country that cause many problems for people.

Meaning of Population Explosion

It refers to the rapid increase in the population of an area among human beings. Furthermore, it is a situation where the economy is not capable of coping with the increasing demand of its population.

Causes of Population Explosion

The cause of the population explosion includes many factors and reasons. These includes:

Increase in the birth rate- Due to lack of control on delivery and unawareness of people the birth rate is increasing rapidly. In addition, the gap between death and birth has gone way wider than what we can think of. Furthermore, the birth rate has increased many folds in comparison to the death rate.

A decrease in infant mortality rate- Mortality rate refers to the number of death of infants below the age of 6 months. Due to science and technology , we are able to minimize this rate and now only a few cases of death are known per thousand death.

The life expectancy growth- Earlier the life expectancy of people was around 55-60 years. But due to better and improved medical facilities, we are now able to increase the life expectancy of people. Now the average age of a person increased to 70-75 years.

Besides, these better living conditions, good quality food, better nutrition , and better sanitation facilities also helped in increasing life expectancy.

High level of illiteracy- The literacy level of women is one of the biggest problems of family planning. In India, people pay very little importance to women’s education and marry them at an early age. That’s why they do not have knowledge about birth control methods and the use of contraceptives.

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Effects of Population Explosion

The population explosion affects natural resources and many sectors of the economy in many ways:

Unemployment- Due to the increase in the population the demand for jobs and employment also increases. But, due to a lack of resources and employment opportunities , there are millions of jobless people in India.

In addition, the condition of unemployment is growing day by day. To face this problem most the people are either migrating to other countries for better job opportunities.

Poverty-  Due to the large population there a large number of people who belong to below the poverty line and they do not have adequate knowledge of the overpopulation of the country. Also, they are the major contributor to a high birth rate.

Prevention of population explosion

There are various methods by which we can prevent a population explosion. The government can take measures to aware of the population about the various methods that can help in controlling the population. Also, it should implement some strong campaign for family planning and birth control.

To sum it up, the population explosion has caused huge pressure on the surface of the earth. Also, we can control many issues of the earth by controlling population growth. Besides, many problems like food insecurity, illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment can be minimized by controlling the population.

FAQs about Population Explosion Essay

Q.1 What are the major reason for the population explosion? A.1 The major factors that are responsible for population explosion are illiteracy, reduced mortality, increased birth rate, and an increase in life expectancy.

Q.2 What are the major reason for the population explosion in India? A.2 The major reason for the population explosion in India are unemployment, large population, poverty and illiteracy, small health condition and several other problems.

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• v.5(4); 2013

The world population explosion: causes, backgrounds and projections for the future

J. van bavel.

Centre for Sociological Research / Family & Population Studies (FaPOS), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leuven, Parkstraat 45 bus 3601, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the total world population crossed the threshold of 1 billion people for the first time in the history of the homo sapiens sapiens. Since then, growth rates have been increasing exponentially, reaching staggeringly high peaks in the 20th century and slowing down a bit thereafter. Total world population reached 7 billion just after 2010 and is expected to count 9 billion by 2045. This paper first charts the differences in population growth between the world regions. Next, the mechanisms behind unprecedented population growth are explained and plausible scenarios for future developments are discussed. Crucial for the long term trend will be the rate of decline of the number of births per woman, called total fertility. Improvements in education, reproductive health and child survival will be needed to speed up the decline of total fertility, particularly in Africa. But in all scenarios, world population will continue to grow for some time due to population momentum. Finally, the paper outlines the debate about the consequences of the population explosion, involving poverty and food security, the impact on the natural environment, and migration flows.

Key words: Fertility, family planning, world population, population growth, demographic transition, urbanization, population momentum, population projections.

Introduction

In the year 1900, Belgium and the Philippines had more or less the same population, around 7 million people. By the year 2000, the population of the Western European monarchy had grown to 10 million citizens, while the South East Asian republic at the turn of the century already counted 76 million citizens. The population of Belgium has since then exceeded 11 million citizens, but it is unlikely that this number will rise to 12 million by the year 2050. The population of the Philippines on the other hand will continue to grow to a staggering 127 million citizens by 2050, according to the demographic projections of the United Nations (UN 2013).

The demographic growth rate of the Philippines around the turn of the century (2% a year) has already created enormous challenges and is clearly unsustainable in the long term: such growth implies a doubling of the population every 35 years as a consequence of which there would be 152 million people by 2035, 304 million by 2070, and so on. Nobody expects such a growth to actually occur. This contribution will discuss the more realistic scenarios for the future.

Even the rather modest Belgian demographic growth rate around the turn of this century (0.46%) is not sustainable in the long term. In any case, it exceeds by far the average growth rate of the human species (homo sapiens sapiens) that arose in Africa some 200.000 years ago. Today, earth is inhabited by some 7 billion people. To achieve this number in 200.000 years, the average yearly growth rate over this term should have been around 0.011% annually (so 11 extra human beings per 1.000 human beings already living on earth). The current Belgian growth rate would imply that our country would have grown to 7 billion in less than 1500 years.

The point of this story is that the current growth numbers are historically very exceptional and untenable in the long term. The demographic growth rates are indeed on the decline worldwide and this paper will attempt to explain some of the mechanisms behind that process. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that the growth remains extraordinarily high and the decline in some regions very slow. This is especially the case in Sub Saharan Africa. In absolute numbers, the world population will continue to grow anyway for quite some time as a result of demographic inertia. This too will be further clarified in this paper.

The evolution of the world population in numbers

In order to be sustainable, the long term growth rate of the population should not differ much from 0%. That is because a growth rate exceeding 0% has exponential implications. In simple terms: if a combination of birth and growth figures only appears to cause a modest population growth initially, then this seems to imply an explosive growth in the longer term.

Thomas R. Malthus already acquired this point of view by the end of the 18th century. In his famous “Essay on the Principle of Population” (first edition in 1789), Malthus argues justly that in time the growth of the population will inevitably slow down, either by an increase of the death rate or by a decrease of the birth rate. On a local scale, migration also plays an important role.

It is no coincidence that Malthus’ essay appeared in England at the end of the 18th century. After all, the population there had started to grow at a historically unseen rate. More specifically the proletariat had grown immensely and that worried the intellectuals and the elite. Year after year, new demographic growth records were recorded.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the number of 1 billion people was exceeded for the first time in history. Subsequently growth accelerated and the number of 2 billion people was already surpassed around 1920. By 1960, another billion had been added, in 40 instead of 120 years time. And it continued to go even faster: 4 billion by 1974, 5 billion by 1987, 6 billion by 1999 and 7 billion in 2011 ( Fig. 1 ).

This will certainly not stop at the current 7 billion. According to the most recent projections by the United Nations, the number of 8 billion will probably be exceeded by 2025, and around 2045 there will be more than 9 billion people 1 . The further one looks into the future, the more uncertain these figures become, and with demography on a world scale one must always take into account a margin of error of a couple of tens of millions. But according to all plausible scenarios, the number of 9 billion will be exceeded by 2050.

Demographic growth was and is not equally distributed around the globe. The population explosion first occurred on a small scale and with a relatively moderate intensity in Europe and America, more or less between 1750 and 1950. From 1950 on, a much more substantial and intensive population explosion started to take place in Asia, Latin America and Africa ( Fig. 2 ). Asia already represented over 55% of the world population in 1950 with its 1.4 billion citizens and by the year 2010 this had increased to 4.2 billion people or 60%. Of those people, more than 1.3 billion live in China and 1.2 billion in India, together accounting for more than one third of the world population.

In the future, the proportion of Asia will come down and that of Africa will increase. Africa was populated by some 230 million people around 1950, or 9% of the world population. In 2010 there were already more than 1 billion Africans or 15% of the world population. According to UN projections, Africa will continue to grow at a spectacular rate up to 2.2 billion inhabitants in 2050 or 24% of the world population. The proportion of Europe, on the other hand, is evolving in the opposite direction: from 22% of the world population in 1950, over 11% in 2010 to an expected mere 8% in 2050. The population of Latin America has grown and is growing rapidly in absolute terms, but because of the strong growth in Asia and especially Africa, the relative proportion of the Latin American population is hardly increasing (at most from 6 to 8%). The proportion of the population in North America, finally, has decreased slightly from 7 to 5% of the world population.

What these figures mainly come down to in practice is that the population size in especially the poor countries is increasing at an unprecedented rate. At the moment, more than 5.7 billion people, or more than 80% of humanity, are living in what the UN categorise as a developing country. By 2050, that number would – according to the projections – have increased to 8 billion people or 86% of the world population. Within this group of developing countries, the group of least developed countries, the poorest countries so to speak, is growing strongly: from 830 million now, up to an expected 1.7 billion in 2050. This comprises very poor countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, Niger or Togo in Africa; Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Myanmar in Asia; and Haiti in the Caribbean.

The growth of the world population goes hand in hand with global urbanisation: while around the year 1950 less than 30% of people lived in the cities, this proportion has increased to more than 50%. It is expected that this proportion will continue to grow to two thirds around 2050. Latin America is the most urbanised continent (84%), closely followed by North America (82%) and at a distance by Europe (73%). The population density has increased intensely especially in the poorest countries: from 9 people per square km in 1950 to 40 people per square km in 2010 (an increase by 330%) in the poorest countries, while this figure in the rich countries increased from 15 to 23 people per square km (a 50% growth). In Belgium, population density is 358 people per square km and in the Netherlands 400 people per square km; in Rwanda this number is 411, in the Palestinian regions 666 and in Bangladesh an astonishing 1050.

Although the world population will continue to grow in absolute figures for some time – a following paragraph will explain why – the growth rate in percentages in all large world regions is decreasing. In the richer countries, the yearly growth rate has already declined to below 0.3%. On a global scale, the yearly growth rate of more than 2% at the peak around 1965 decreased to around 1% now. A further decline to less than 0.5% by 2050 is expected. In the world’s poorest countries, the demographic growth is still largest: at present around 2.2%. For these countries, a considerable decrease is expected, but the projected growth rate would not fall below 1.5% before 2050. This means, as mentioned above, a massive growth of the population in absolute figures in the world’s poorest countries.

Causes of the explosion: the demographic transition

The cause of, first, the acceleration and, then, the deceleration in population growth is the modern demographic transition: an increasingly growing group of countries has experienced a transition from relatively high to low birth and death rates, or is still in the process of experiencing this. It is this transition that is causing the modern population explosion. Figure 3 is a schematic and strongly simplified representation of the modern demographic transition.

In Europe, the modern demographic transition started to take place in the middle of the 18th century. Until then, years of extremely high death rates were quite frequent. Extremely high crisis mortality could be the consequence of epidemic diseases or failed harvests and famine, or a combination of both. As a consequence of better hygiene and a better transportation infrastructure (for one, the canals and roads constructed by Austria in the 18th century), amongst other reasons, crisis mortality became less and less frequent. Later on in the 19th century, child survival began to improve. Vaccination against smallpox for example led to an eradication of the disease, with the last European smallpox pandemic dating from 1871. This way, not only the years of crisis mortality became less frequent, but also the average death rate decreased, from an average 30 deaths per 1000 inhabitants in the beginning of the 19th century to around 15 deaths per 1000 citizens by the beginning of the 20th century. In the meantime, the birth rate however stayed at its previous, high level of 30-35 births per 1000 inhabitants.

The death rate went down but the birth rate still didn’t: this caused a large growth in population. It was only near the end of the nineteenth century (a bit earlier in some countries, later in others) that married couples in large numbers started to reduce their number of children. By the middle of the 20th century, the middle class ideal of a two children household had gained enormous popularity and influence. The reaction by the Church, for example in the encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968), came much too late to bring this evolution to a halt.

As a consequence of widespread family planning – made even easier in the sixties by modern hormonal contraceptives – the birth rate started declining as well and the population tended back towards zero growth. Nowadays the end of this transition process has been more than achieved in all European countries, because the fertility has been below replacement level for several decades (the replacement level is the fertility level that would in the long term lead to a birth rate identical to the death rate, if there would be no migration) 2 .

That the population explosion in the developing countries since the second half of the 20th century was so much more intense and massive, is a consequence of the fact that in those countries, the process of demographic transition occurred to a much more extreme extent and on a much larger scale. On the one hand, mortality decreased faster than in Europe. After all, in Europe the decline in mortality was the result of a gradual understanding of the importance of hygiene and afterwards the development of new medical insights. These insights of course already existed at the start of the demographic transitions in Asian, Latin American and African regions, whereby the life expectancy in these regions could grow faster. On the other hand, the total fertility – the average number of children per woman – at the start of the transition was a lot higher in many poor regions than it initially was in Europe. For South Korea, Brasil and the Congo, for example, the total fertility rate shortly after the Second World War (at the start of their demographic transition) is estimated to be 6 children per woman. In Belgium this number was close to 4.5 children per woman by the middle of the nineteenth century. In some developing regions, the fertility and birth rate decreased moderately to very fast, but in other regions this decline took off at an exceptionally sluggish pace – this will be further explained later on. As a consequence of these combinations of factors, in most of these countries the population explosion was much larger than it had been in most European countries.

Scenarios for the future

Nonetheless, the process of demographic transition has reached its second phase in almost all countries in the world, namely the phase of declining fertility and birth rates. In a lot of Asian and Latin American countries, the entire transition has taken place and the fertility level is around or below the replacement level. South Korea for example is currently at 1.2 children per woman and is one of the countries with the lowest fertility levels in the world. In Iran and Brasil the fertility level is currently more or less equal to Belgium’s, that is 1.8 to 1.9 children per woman.

Crucial to the future evolution of the population is the further evolution of the birth rate. Scenarios for the future evolution of the size and age of the population differ according to the hypotheses concerning the further evolution of the birth rate. The evolution of the birth rate is in turn dependent on two things: the further evolution of the total fertility rate (the average number of children per woman) in the first place and population momentum in the second. The latter is a concept I will later on discuss in more detail. The role of the population momentum is usually overlooked in the popular debates, but is of utmost importance in understanding the further evolution of the world population. Population momentum is the reason why we are as good as certain that the world population will continue to grow for a while. The other factor, the evolution of the fertility rate, is much more uncertain but of critical importance in the long term. The rate at which the further growth of the world population can be slowed down is primarily dependent on the extent to which the fertility rates will continue to decline. I will further elaborate on this notion in the next paragraph. After that, I will clarify the notion of population momentum.

Declining fertility

Fertility is going down everywhere in the world, but it’s going down particularly slowly in Africa. A further decline remains uncertain there. Figure 4 shows the evolution per world region between 1950 and 2010, plus the projected evolution until 2050. The numbers before 2010 illustrate three things. First of all, on all continents there is a decline going on. Secondly, this decline is not equal everywhere. And thirdly: the differences between the continents remain large in some cases. Asia and Latin America have seen a similar decline in fertility: from 5.9 children per woman in 1950 to 2.5 at the start of the 21st century. Europe and North America had already gone through the largest part of their demographic transition by the 1950’s. Their fertility level has been below replacement levels for years. Africa has indeed seen a global decrease of fertility, but the average number of children is still at an alarmingly high level: the fertility merely decreased from 6.7 to 5.1 children per woman.

These continental averages hide a huge underlying diversity in fertility paths. Figure 5 attempts to illustrate this for a number of countries. Firstly let us consider two African countries: the Congo and Niger. As was often the case in Europe in the 19th century, fertility was first on the rise before it started declining. In the Congo this decrease was more extensive, from around 6 children in 1980 to 4 children per woman today, and a further decline to just below three is expected in the next thirty years. Niger is the country where the fertility level remains highest: from 7 it first rose to an average of just below 8 children per woman in the middle of the 1980’s, before decreasing to just above 6.5 today. For the next decades a decline to 4 children per woman is expected. But that is not at all certain: it is dependent on circumstances that will be further explained in a moment. The demographic transition is after all not a law of nature but the result of human actions and human institutions.

Around 1950, Pakistan and Iran had more or less the same fertility level as Niger, but both countries have seen a considerable decline in the meantime. In Pakistan the level decreased slowly to the current level of 3 children per woman. In Iran the fertility decreased more abruptly, faster and deeper to below the replacement level – Iran today has one of the lowest fertility levels in the world, and a further decline is expected. The Iranian Revolution of 1978 played a crucial role in the history of Iran (Abassi-Shavazi et al., 2009): it brought better education and health care, two essential ingredients for birth control.

Brasil was also one of the countries with very high fertility in the 1950’s – higher than the Congo, for example. The decrease started earlier than in Iran but happened more gradually. Today both countries have the same total fertility, below the replacement level.

Child mortality, education and family planning

Which factors cause the average number of children to go down? The literature concerning explanations for the decrease in fertility is vast and complex, but two factors emerge as crucial in this process: education and child survival.

Considering child survival first: countries combining intensive birth control with very high child mortality are simply non-existent. The statistical association between the level of child mortality and fertility is very tight and strong: in countries with high child mortality, fertility is high, and vice versa. This statistical correlation is very strong because the causal relation goes in both directions; with quick succession of children and therefore a lot of children to take care for, the chances of survival for the infants are lower than in those families with only a limited number of children to take care of – this is a fortiori the case where infrastructure for health care is lacking. A high fertility level thus contributes to a high child mortality. And in the other direction: where survival chances of children improve, the fertility will go down because even those households with a lower number of children have increasing confidence in having descendants in the long term.

It is crucial to understand that the decline in child mortality in the demographic transition always precedes the decline in fertility. Men, women and families cannot be convinced of the benefits of birth control if they don’t have confidence in the survival chances of their children. Better health care is therefore essential, and a lack of good health care is one of the reasons for a persistently high fertility in a country like Niger.

Education is another factor that can cause a decline in fertility. This is probably the most important factor, not just because education is an important humanitarian goal in itself (apart from the demographic effects), but also because with education one can kill two birds with one stone: education causes more birth control but also better child survival (recently clearly demonstrated by Smith-Greenaway (2013), which in its turn will lead to better birth control. The statistical correlation between level of education and level of fertility is therefore very strong.

Firstly, education enhances the motivation for birth control: if parents invest in the education of their children, they will have fewer children, as has been demonstrated. Secondly, education promotes a more forward-looking lifestyle: it will lead people to think on a somewhat longer term, to think about tomorrow, next week and next month, instead of living for the day. This attitude is necessary for effective birth control. Thirdly, education also increases the potential for effective contraception, because birth control doesn’t just happen, especially not when efficient family planning facilities are not or hardly accessible or when there are opposing cultural or family values.

The influence of education on birth control has been demonstrated in a vast number of studies (James et al., 2012). It starts with primary education, but an even larger effect can be attained by investment in secondary education (Cohen, 2008). In a country like Niger, for example, women who didn’t finish primary school have on average 7.8 children. Women who did finish primary school have on average 6.7 children, while women who finished secondary school “only” have 4.6 children ( Fig. 6 ). The fertility of Niger would be a lot lower if more women could benefit from education. The tragedy of that country is that too many people fall in the category of those without a degree of primary school, with all its demographic consequences.

One achieves with education therefore a plural beneficial demographic effect on top of the important objective of human emancipation in itself. All this is of course not always true but depends on which form of “education”; I assume that we’re talking about education that teaches people the knowledge and skills to better take control of their own destiny.

It is one thing to get people motivated to practice birth control but obtaining actual effective contraception is quite another matter. Information concerning the efficient use of contraceptives and increasing the accessibility and affordability of contraceptives can therefore play an important role. There are an estimated 215 million women who would want to have contraception but don’t have the means (UNFPA, 2011). Investments in services to help with family planning are absolutely necessary and could already have great results in this group of women. But it’s no use to put the cart before the horse: if there is no intention to practice birth control, propaganda for and accessibility of contraception will hardly have any effect, as was demonstrated in the past. In Europe the lion’s share of the decline in fertility was realized with traditional methods, before the introduction of hormonal contraception in the sixties. There is often a problem of lack of motivation for birth control on the one hand, as a result of high child mortality and low schooling rates, and a lack of power in women who may be motivated to limit fertility but are confronted with male resistance on the other (Blanc, 2011; Do and Kurimoto, 2012). Empowerment of women is therefore essential, and education can play an important role in that process as well.

Population momentum

Even if all the people would suddenly practice birth control much more than is currently considered possible, the world population would still continue to grow for a while. This is the consequence of population momentum, a notion that refers to the phenomenon of demographic inertia, comparable to the phenomenon of momentum and inertia in the field of physics. Demographic growth is like a moving train: even when you turn off the engine, the movement will continue for a little while.

The power and direction of population momentum is dependent on the age structure of the population. Compare the population pyramids of Egypt and Germany ( Fig. 7 ). The one for Egypt has a pyramidal shape indeed, but the one for Germany looks more like an onion. As a consequence of high birth rates in the previous decades, the largest groups of Egyptians are to be found below the age of forty; the younger, the more voluminous the generation. Even if the current and future generations of Egyptians would limit their fertility strongly (as is indeed the case), the birth rate in Egypt would still continue to rise for quite some time, just because year after year more and more potential mothers and fathers reach the fertile ages. Egypt therefore clearly has a growth momentum.

Germany on the other hand has a negative or shrinking momentum: even if the younger generations of Germans would have a larger num ber of children than the generation of their own parents, the birth rate in Germany would still continue to decrease because fewer and fewer potential mothers and fathers reach the fertile ages.

The population momentum on a global scale is positive: even if fertility would decrease overnight to the replacement level, the world population would continue to grow with 40% (from 7 billion to 9.8 billion). Only the rich countries have a shrinking momentum, that is -3%. For Europe the momentum is -7%. The population momentum for the poorest countries in the world is +44%, that of Sub Saharan Africa +46% (Espenshade et al., 2011).

Consequences of the population explosion

The concerns about the consequences of population explosion started in the sixties. Milestone publications were the 1968 book The Population bomb by biologist Paul Ehrlich, the report of the Club of Rome from 1972 (The Limits to Growth) and the first World Population Plan of Action of the UN in 1974 among others.

In the world population debate, the general concerns involve mainly three interconnected consequences of the population explosion: 1) the growing poverty in the world and famine; 2) the exhaustion and pollution of natural resources essential to human survival; and 3) the migration pressure from the poor South to the rich North (Van Bavel, 2004).

Poverty and famine

The Malthusian line of thought continues to leave an important mark on the debate regarding the association between population growth and poverty: Malthus saw an excessive population growth as an important cause of poverty and famine. Rightfully this Malthusian vision has been criticized a lot. One must after all take the reverse causal relation into account as well: poverty and the related social circumstances (like a lack of education and good health care for children) contribute to high population growth as well.

Concerning famine: the production of food has grown faster since 1960 than the world population has, so nowadays the amount of food produced per person exceeds that which existed before the population explosion (Lam, 2011). The problem of famine isn’t as much an insufficient food production as it is a lack of fair distribution (and a lack of sustainable production, but that’s another issue). Often regions with famine have ecological conditions permitting sufficient production of food, provided the necessary investments in human resources and technology are made. The most important cause of famine is therefore not the population explosion. Famine is primarily a consequence of unequal distribution of food, which in turn is caused by social-economic inequality, lack of democracy and (civil) war.

Poverty and famine usually have mainly political and institutional causes, not demographic ones. The Malthusian vision, that sees the population explosion as the root of all evil, therefore has to be corrected ( Fig. 8 ). Rapid population growth can indeed hinder economical development and can thus pave the way for poverty. But this is only part of the story. As mentioned, poverty is also an underlying cause of rapid population growth. Social factors are at the base of both poverty and population growth. It’s those social factors that require our intervention: via investments in education and (reproductive) health care.

Impact on the environment

The impact of the population explosion on the environment is unquestionably high, but the size of the population represents only one aspect of this. In this regard it can be useful to keep in mind the simple I=PAT scheme: the ecological footprint or impact on the environment (I) can be regarded as the product of the size of the population (P), the prosperity or consumption level (A for affluence) and the technology used (T). The relationship between each of these factors is more complex than the I=PAT scheme suggests, but in any case the footprint I of a population of 1000 people is for example dependent on how many of those people drive a car instead of a bike, and of the emission per car of the vehicle fleet concerned.

The ecological footprint of the world population has increased tremendously the past decades and the growth of the world population has obviously played an important role in this. The other factors in the I=PAT scheme have however played a relatively bigger role than the demographic factor P. The considerable increase in the Chinese ecological footprint of the past decades for example, is more a consequence of the increased consumption of meat than of population growth (Peters et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2008). The carbon dioxide emission of China grew by 82% between 1990 and 2003, while the population only increased by 11% in that same period. A similar story exists for India: the population grew by less than 23% between 1990 and 2003, while the emission of carbon dioxide increased by more than 83% (Chakravarty et al., 2009). The consumption of water and meat in the world is increasing more rapidly than the population 3 . The consumption of water per person is for example threefold higher in the US than in China (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2007). The African continent has at present the same number of inhabitants as Europe and North America together, over 1 billion. But the total ecological footprint of Europeans and Americans is many times higher than that of Africans (Ewing et al., 2010). Less than 18% of the world population is responsible for over 50% of the global carbon dioxide emission (Chakravarty et al., 2009).

If we are therefore concerned about the impact of the world population on the environment, we can do something about it immediately by tackling our own overconsumption: it’s something we can control and it has an immediate effect. In contrast, we know of the population growth that it will continue for some time anyhow, even if people in poor countries would practice much more birth control than we consider possible at present.

The population explosion has created an increasing migration pressure from the South to the North – and there is also important migration within and between countries in the South. But here as well the message is: the main responsibility doesn’t lie with the population growth but with economic inequality. The primary motive for migration was and is economic disparity: people migrate from regions with no or badly paid labour and a low standard of living to other regions, where one hopes to find work and a higher standard of living (Massey et al., 1993; Hooghe et al., 2008; IMO, 2013). Given the permanent population growth and economical inequality, a further increasing migration pressure is to be expected, irrespective of the national policies adopted.

It is sometimes expected that economic growth and increasing incomes in the South will slow down the migration pressure, but that remains to be seen. After all, it isn’t usually the poorest citizens in developing countries that migrate to rich countries. It is rather the affluent middle class in poor countries that have the means to send their sons and daughters to the North – an investment that can raise a lot of money via remittances to the families in the country of origin (IMO, 2013). There is after all a considerable cost attached to migration, in terms of money and human capital. Not everyone can bear those costs: to migrate you need brains, guts and money. With growing economic development in poor countries, an initial increase in migration pressure from those countries would be expected; the association between social-economic development and emigration is not linearly negative but follows the shape of a J turned upside down: more emigration at the start of economic development and a decline in emigration only with further development (De Haas, 2007).

7 Billion and counting… What is to be done?

A world population that needed some millennia before reaching the number of 1 billion people, but then added some billions more after 1920 in less than a century: the social, cultural, economic and ecological consequences of such an evolution are so complex that they can lead to fear and indifference at the same time. What kind of constructive reaction is possible and productive in view of such an enormous issue?

First of all: we need to invest in education and health care in Africa and elsewhere, not just as a humanitarian target per se but also because it will encourage the spread of birth control. Secondly, we need to encourage and support the empowerment of women, not just via education but also via services for reproductive health. This has triple desirable results for demographics: it will lead to more and more effective birth control, which in itself has a positive effect on the survival of children, which in turn again facilitates birth control.

Thirdly: because of the positive population momentum, the world population will certainly continue to grow in absolute figures, even though the yearly growth rate in percentages is already on the decline for several years. The biggest contribution we could make therefore, with an immediate favourable impact for ourselves and the rest of the world, is to change our consumption pattern and deal with the structural overconsumption of the world’s richest countries.

(1) Unless otherwise specified, all figures in this paragraph are based on the United Nations World Population Prospects, the 2012 Revision, http://esa.un.org/wpp/ . Concerning projections for the future, I reported the results of the Medium Variant. Apart from this variant, there are also high and low variants (those relying on scenarios implying respectively an extremely high and extremely low growth of the population) and a variant in which the fertility rates are fixed at the current levels. It is expected that the actual number will be somewhere between the highest and lowest variant and will be closest to the medium variant. That’s why I only report this latter value.

(2) In demography, the term «fertility» refers to the actual number of live births per women. By contrast, the term fecundity refers to reproductive capacity (irrespective of actual childbearing), see Habbema et al. (2004).

(3) See http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures

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Population Explosion Essay

500+ words population explosion essay.

Population explosion means a sudden increase in the number of individuals in a particular species. The term is used to refer to the world’s human population. In India, the Population explosion has become a severe matter of concern because the increase in population leads to poverty and illiteracy. In this situation, it is difficult to cope with the economy of the country with the rapid growth of the population. The Government of India is now looking into the matter seriously, and many states have framed laws to tackle the problem of population explosion.

Major Causes of Population Explosion

1. increase in birth rate.

One of the major causes for the growth of the population is the high birth rate. During the 1891-1990 period, the birth rate declined from 45.8 per thousand in India, but it is still considered high. So, unfortunately, in India, the birth rate has not seen a decrease in spite of the framing laws in terms of family planning, population education, campaigns, etc.

2. Decrease in Death Rate

In recent years, the decrease in the death rate has been another factor contributing to the rapid growth of the population. In 2001, the death rate in India was about 8.5 per thousand. The death rate has seen a decrease due to advancements in the medical field. For example, chronic diseases like typhoid, chickenpox, etc., are no longer dreaded. Even the infant mortality rate has decreased because of proper sanitation facilities, cleanliness, and better prenatal and postnatal care.

3. Early Marriage

Early marriage is also an essential factor in the rapid increase in population. In India, the marriage age of a girl is 18, which is very low compared to other countries, which is about 23 to 25 years. It leads to a longer span of reproductive activity.

4. Religious and Social Reasons

In India, marriage is considered a compulsory social institution, and every person should marry. Every individual in a joint family takes equal responsibility and has access to an equivalent level of consumption. So, people don’t hesitate to increase their family size to a joint family. In India, most people think that one male child is necessary, and in the expectation of getting a male child, they increase their family size.

Another major cause of the population explosion is poverty. In most families, children become the source of income. From a very young age, children start working for their families instead of going to school, and they become a precious asset to the family. So, every individual becomes an earning member and additional income for the family.

6. Standard of Living

It is seen that people with a low standard of living wish to have additional children as it will be an asset for them rather than a liability. As we know, most of India’s population is uneducated, so they don’t understand the importance of family planning. They are unaware that they can enjoy a better quality of life with a small family.

7. Illiteracy

In India, 60% of the population is either illiterate or has minimum education, which leads to minimal employment opportunities. So, due to the high illiteracy rate and belief in social customs, child marriage and preference for a male child still prevail. As a result, there is a rapid population growth rate in India.

Effects of Population Explosion

1. the problem of unemployment.

An increase in population leads to a vast army of the labour force. But, it is difficult to employ such extensive labour working force due to a shortage of capital resources. Disguised unemployment in rural areas and open unemployment in urban areas are fundamental features of an underdeveloped country like India.

2. More Pressure on Land

Overpopulation creates more pressure on land. It adversely affects the economic development of the country. On the one hand, per capita availability of land goes on diminishing and on the other, the problem of subdivision and fragmentation of holdings increases.

3. Environmental Degradation

Extensive use of natural resources and energy production of oil, natural gas, and coal negatively impacts the planet. An increase in population also leads to deforestation, which directly affects the environment, and it also degrades the soil’s nutritional value and causes landslides and global warming.

So, at last, we can wrap up the essay by stating that overpopulation is considered one of the biggest challenges humanity faces.

Students can also get different essays by visiting BYJU’S website. We have compiled a list of crucial CBSE Essays from an exam perspective.

Frequently Asked Questions on Population Explosion Essay

How can population explosion be controlled.

Awareness campaigns on childbirth control and the gap between consecutive children should reach the common public. It is necessary to take such initiatives to keep the population of a country in control.

Which country has the highest population?

China is a country with a maximum population of about 1.448 billion citizens.

How is the younger generation affected due to this population explosion?

The resources which are meant exclusively for the younger generation get split and are divided due to the population explosion of a country.

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• Population Explosion Essay

Essay on Population Explosion

After the Republic of China, India is the most populous country in the world. Presently, India is the second-largest populated country in the world that occupies 2.4% of the world’s land area and represents 17.5% of the world’s population. This means that one out of six people on this planet is an Indian.

It is estimated by the United Nations that India with 1.3 billion inhabitants would surpass China’s population of 1.4 billion by 2024 to become the world’s most populous country. Population Explosion is considered as a threat and burden on the Earth.

What is Population Explosion?

Population Explosion refers to the rapid increase in the number of people in an area. It is a situation where the economy of the country cannot cope up with the rapid growth of the population. Furthermore, in simpler words, it is a situation where the economy cannot provide proper facilities to its people.

Evidently, the largest contributing countries to population explosion are the poorer nations and are termed as developing countries. In India, the state of Uttar Pradesh is the most populated state and Lakshadweep is the least populated. Hence we can say that population explosion is inversely related to the development of that area.

Population Explosion has become the mother of evils in our country because too much population is trapping people in a web of poverty and illiteracy that further escalates the problem. Any time of the day, whether it is a metro station, airport, railway platforms, road, highway bus stop, shopping mall, market, or even a social or religious gathering, there is always a swelling crowd of people in India.

Causes of Population Explosion

The major cause of this population explosion is the difference between the birth rate. The birth rate is the number of individuals born in a population in a given amount of time. The human birth rate is the number of individuals born per year per 1000 in the population. For example, if 35 births occur per year per 1000 individuals, the birth rate is 35 ) .

The death rate is the ratio between deaths and individuals in a particular population during a particular period. In simple words, the incidence of deaths in a given population during a defined time (such as one year) is expressed per 1000 individuals ).

Apart from these, some other factors are partially responsible for population explosion, such as:

A decrease in infant mortality rate (Mortality rate refers to the number of deaths of infants below the age of 6 months.), 

The increase in life expectancy (An estimate of the average number of additional years that a person of a given age can expect to live). 

Earlier the life expectancy of people was around 55-60 years. Now the average age of a person has increased to 70-75 years.) but due to better and improved medical facilities, we can now increase the life expectancy of people. 

Earlier, there was a balance between the birth and death rate due to limited medical facilities, people dying in wars, and other calamities. According to the 2011 census, the birth rate has actually come down but then the death rate has also declined due to the medical advancements. 

Illiteracy is another cause of an increase in population. Low literacy rate leads to traditional, superstitious, and ignorant people. For example, Kerala has a very high literacy rate and it constitutes only 2.76% of India’s population as compared to Uttar Pradesh having maximum illiteracy rate and forms 16.49% of the population. Educated people are well aware of birth control methods. 

Family planning, welfare programs, and policies have not fetched the desired result. The increase in population is putting tremendous pressure on the limited infrastructure and negating India’s progress.

The superstitious people mainly from rural places think that having a male child would give them prosperity and so there is a considerable pressure on the parents to produce children till a male child is born. This leads to a population explosion. 

Poverty is another main reason for this. Poor people believe that the more people in the family, the more will be the number of persons to earn bread. Hence it contributes to the increase in population. 

Continuous illegal migration of people from neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh is leading to a rise in the population density in India.

Religion sentiment is another cause of the population explosion. Some orthodox communities believe that any mandate or statutory method of prohibition is sacrilegious. It is difficult for India to exercise a check on the religious grounds for its secularism.

Impact Due to Population Explosion

The growth of the population has a major impact on the living standards of people. That is why, despite our incredible progress in the agricultural and industrial spheres, our capita income has not risen appreciably.

Hence given below are some of the major problems which are just because of the population explosion:

Natural Resources of that particular region: Natural resources are materials from the Earth used to support life and meet people’s needs. Hence if there are many people, then there is a high requirement for Natural Resources.

Unemployment: When a country becomes overpopulated, it gives rise to unemployment as fewer jobs support many people. The rise in unemployment gives rise to crime, such as theft, as people want to feed their families and provide them with basic amenities of life.

High Cost of Living: As the difference between demand and supply continues to expand due to population explosion, it raises the prices of various essential commodities, including food, shelter, and healthcare. It means that people have to pay more to survive and feed their families.

Poverty: Another major issue of population explosion is the increase in poverty as people are unemployed due to a lack of job opportunities and an abundant workforce. 

Illiteracy: Because of unemployment, they cannot provide better education to the coming generation, giving us back population explosion.

Starvation: When resources are scarce, starvation, ill health, and diseases caused by diet deficiency such as rickets become eminent.

Some Major Effects of the High Population are as Follows

The rapidly growing population in India has led to the problem of food scarcity and heavy pressure on land. Even though 60% of its population is engaged in agriculture, yet people do not get even the barely necessary amount of food. 

Generating employment opportunities for such a huge population in India is very difficult. Therefore, illiteracy is growing rapidly every year. 

Development of infrastructural facilities is not able to cope up with the pace of growing population. So facilities like transportation, communication, housing, education, and healthcare are becoming inadequate to provide provision to the people.

The increasing population leads to unequal distribution of income and inequalities among the people widened.

Unmanageable population size may lead to the failure of the government to provide the basic facilities to the people. 

Economic development is slow in a country where the population is growing at a very fast rate. This also leads to low capital formation. 

Ignorance, illiteracy, unhygienic living conditions, and lack of recreation have always been the cause of population problems in India. 

Rapid growth in population is also an indication of the wastage of natural resources.

Preventive Measures

To tackle this problem, the government needs to take corrective measures. The entire development of the country depends on how effectively the population explosion is stemmed. 

The government and various NGOs should raise awareness about family planning and welfare. Hoardings with slogans like “Hum do, humare do” and “Chota Parivar, Sukhi Parivar” should be put up in hospitals and other public places. These slogans mean that a small family is a happy family and two children for two parents. The awareness about the use of contraceptive pills and family planning methods should be generated. 

The health care centres should help the poor people with the free distribution of contraceptives and encourage the control of the number of children. 

The government should come forward to empower women and improve the status of women and girls. People in rural places should be educated and modern amenities should be provided for recreation.

So we can summarise the topic by stating that population explosion is a term used to state the rapid growth of people in a particular area. It is because of lack of education, illiteracy, lack of proper knowledge of sex education, rituals, and superstition in the country’s most populated area. 

Overpopulation results in a lack of development and exploitation of resources, whereas India’s strength in the global world in various fields cannot be ignored. By raising public awareness and enlisting strict population control norms, India will be able to tackle this issue.

It doesn’t mean that will happen very quickly and without any effort. It will take time because India constitutes one of the huge countries of about 138 Crore (2020) people. Proper, effective, and steady steps will lead India to a greater good.

 It helps the country control the population explosion and also helps to provide good results in several other things like the good environment, abundant natural resources, proper employment, proper literacy rate with high growth in development, etc.

All this could be possible if we take some measures and be good citizens of this country. So that is how we can overcome this issue of population explosion.

FAQs on Population Explosion Essay

1) What is Population Explosion?

Population Explosion refers to a rapid increase in people in a particular area. Occurring due to reasons like increased birth in the area, decreased mortality rate, and inflow of residents, population explosion may lead to shortage of resources, negatively affecting the development of the area.

2) How is the birth rate related to population explosion?

Birth rate is directly proportional to population explosion because of people’s lack of knowledge and literacy. Most common in poor families, where more children means more means of income, increased birth rate gradually results in a population explosion.

3) What are the measures to avoid population explosion?

Better education (specially for girl child), creating awareness of family planning, providing proper knowledge of Sex Education, etc. can be some solutions to tackle the issue.

4) What is the difference between death rate and infant mortality rate?

The ratio between deaths and individuals in a particular population during a particular period is the death rate, whereas the infant mortality rate refers to the number of infants below 6 months who died within the same period.

5) What are the major reasons for the population explosion?

The major factors responsible for population explosion are illiteracy, reduced mortality, increased birth rate, and life expectancy.

World Population: What Helps Explain the Explosion?

Key takeaways.

• Past discussion about world overpopulation centered on birth rates, but data for India and the U.S. show death rates also have a significant effect on population dynamics.
• A steep decline in India’s death rate starting in 1950 allowed population growth to remain steady despite a falling birth rate, substantially impacting global population.
• Death rates fell relatively more for an older segment of the population in the U.S. than in India, leading to a median age of 27 in India in 2019 versus 37 in the U.S.

The world population reached 1 billion in 1803. It took 125 years, until 1928, for the world population to hit 2 billion. A mere 32 years later, in 1960, the world population reached 3 billion. Current world population is now approaching 8 billion.  These population statistics are from Our World in Data .

A 1968 book titled The Population Bomb famously sounded the alarm on global overpopulation. The book contended that overpopulation leads to “hellish” conditions.  See Paul R. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb , Ballantine Books, New York, 1968. In 1972, a Club of Rome report called The Limits to Growth predicted societal collapse as a consequence of overpopulation. See Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens III’s The Limits to Growth , Potomac Associates, Washington, D.C., 1972. Garrett Hardin, known for his article “The Tragedy of the Commons,” described population growth as disastrous. See Garrett Hardin’s December 1968 article, “ The Tragedy of the Commons ,” in the journal Science . In May 2008, then-President George W. Bush described the 2007-08 rise in world food prices as resulting from the size of India’s population. See the White House’s May 2008 press release “ President Bush Discusses Economy, Trade .”

The Population Bomb asserted that the U.S. must help low-income countries lower their high birth rates to solve the overpopulation problem. This was echoed by the World Bank’s 1984 World Development Report . It argued that low-income countries must decrease population growth, which “means to reduce the number of children in an average family.” See the World Bank’s 1984 World Development Report . During this period, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Population Council, the United Nations Population Fund and other organizations promoted and funded programs to reduce fertility in low-income countries. See Charles C. Mann's January 2018 article, “ The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation ,” in Smithsonian Magazine.

Population Growth Is Determined by Birth and Death Rates

This overpopulation discussion focused mostly on births. In this article, we investigate the role of deaths in population dynamics using data for India and the U.S. To understand the focus on birth rates in the discussion of population, it helps to know how births and deaths affect population over time.

Population growth rate—the annual rate at which population increases—offers a useful way to think about this relationship. It equals the birth rate (the number of births divided by the number of people) minus the death rate (the number of deaths divided by the number of people). This can be written as the following:

Population Growth Rate=Birth Rate – Death Rate

It is easy to see from the equation that, just as the 1984 World Development Report suggested, the population would grow less if the birth rate declined. As the following figure illustrates, the birth rate in India decreased from 44 per thousand people in 1950 to 32 per thousand people in 1990. (The birth rate in India declined further to 17 per thousand people by 2019, almost converging with the birth rate in the U.S., which was about 11 per thousand people.)

Crude Birth Rates in the U.S. and India, 1950-2019

SOURCE: United Nations, World Population Prospects 2022 .

NOTE: Crude birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people.

Despite the decline in birth rate, however, the population growth rate stayed the same, around 2.25%, from 1950 to 1990. So, why the discrepancy?

India’s population growth rate stayed the same despite the falling birth rate because of the dynamics of its death rate. The following figure illustrates the steep decline in death rates in India, from 22 deaths per thousand people in 1950 to 10.7 deaths per thousand people in 1990. India’s death rate fell further to 6.7 per thousand people in 2019 . Over this period, death rates in the U.S. decreased by only 1.3 deaths per thousand people—from 9.6 to 8.3. In 2019, the death rate in India was lower than that in the U.S. While the earlier overpopulation discussion emphasized the role of birth rates, it failed to account for how the decline in death rates affects population growth.

Crude Death Rates in the U.S. and India, 1950-2019

NOTE: Crude death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people.

The Decline in India’s Death Rate Substantially Impacted Current Global Population Levels

To assess the quantitative impact of the decline in death rates, we ran a counterfactual exercise and calculated what India’s population would have been if we held India’s death rate fixed at the 1950 level. That is, we calculated India’s population each year starting in 1950 using the year’s actual birth rate and the 1950 death rate instead of the year’s particular death rate.

The actual population in India increased from 360 million in 1950 to nearly 1.4 billion in 2019; whereas, in the counterfactual example, India’s population increased from 360 million to only 760 million in 2019. That’s a difference of about 640 million fewer people.

World population increased by 5.34 billion people from 1950 to 2019. India accounted for 20% of this increase. If India’s death rate over this period had remained the same as in 1950, the world population would have increased by only 4.7 billion, with just 8.5% attributable to India. That is, the world population also would have been smaller by 640 million people.

Death Rate Affects Age Composition

A decline in the death rate has implications for the age composition of the population, depending upon whether the decline occurred among younger or older age groups. For instance, if the decline in death rate is predominantly in the 0-4 age group, then the population will get relatively younger; if the decline is predominantly in the 70-74 age group, then the population will get relatively older.

In India, there were roughly 81 deaths per thousand people in 1950 in the 0-4 age group; this number declined more than 90% to fewer than seven deaths per thousand people in this age group in 2019. In contrast, the death rate in the 70-74 age group declined by less than 45%, from 79 per thousand people to 44 per thousand people. The median age in India in 2019 was 27; in absolute terms, the number of people 27 and younger in India was more than twice the entire population of the U.S.

In the U.S., the decline in the death rate in the 0-4 age group was about 84% during this period, but the decline in the 70-74 age group was about 58%. The relative decrease in death rates in the older age group was larger in the U.S. than in India. Consequently, the median age in the U.S. in 2019 was 37; two-thirds of India’s population in 2019 was below this age.

• These population statistics are from Our World in Data .
• See Paul R. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb , Ballantine Books, New York, 1968.
• See Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens III’s The Limits to Growth , Potomac Associates, Washington, D.C., 1972.
• See Garrett Hardin’s December 1968 article, “ The Tragedy of the Commons ,” in the journal Science .
• See the White House’s May 2008 press release “ President Bush Discusses Economy, Trade .”
• See the World Bank’s 1984 World Development Report .
• See Charles C. Mann's January 2018 article, “ The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation ,” in Smithsonian Magazine.

B. Ravikumar is senior vice president and deputy director of research at the St. Louis Fed. Read more about the author’s research .

Iris Arbogast is a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Related Topics

Views expressed in Regional Economist are not necessarily those of the St. Louis Fed or Federal Reserve System.

For the latest insights from our economists and other St. Louis Fed experts, visit On the Economy and subscribe .

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Population Explosion Essay - 100, 200, 500 Words

Population Explosion Essay - Population refers to a group of living beings of the same kind as humans, animals or birds that lives in a specific habitat or specific place. Population explosion means a sudden and rapid growth in the population of a given place or area across a specified time. An increase in population at a normal pace is known as population growth. Here are a few sample essays on “Population Explosion” .

100 Words Essay on Population Explosion

The term population refers to the number of existing people in a particular area, place, city or country. Excessive population is a curse for any country as it is pretty challenging to manage and cope with the needs of people. It is because every country has a limited amount of resources, and it becomes impossible to manage the economy of the country in that scenario.

Population explosion creates many problems as it impacts the living standards of the people significantly. Generally, the country which suffers from this affair is in the developing or underdeveloped stages. Everybody suffers a lot due to this as the burden on resources has to be borne by the people themselves, which in turn leads to compromise on the basic amenities too.

200 Words Essay on Population Explosion

At a global level, presently, China is the most populous country in the world, accompanied by India in the second position. Research at a global level has concluded that the nations in their developing phase are more populous than the developed ones (Source: The World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.)

Impact of Population Explosion

The rising population leads to unemployment, exploitation of natural resources, excessive wastage of water, global warming, etc. Some major causes of the population explosion are illiteracy, low education level among women, etc. It leads to various problems like depletion of natural resources. Also, one of the most common problems is unemployment. The government becomes incapable of employing such a huge population. People are unaware of the fact that their next generation and heirs will have to face the repercussions of their deeds today.

China adopted the One-Child Policy, though it didn't work as per expectations . But our government should also formulate such a plan in order to curb the prevailing problem. The government should also take the initiative to promote a girl child because it is the mother who suffers physically and mentally in expectation to give birth to a male child.

500 Words Essay on Population Explosion

Presently, India accounts for around 17.5% of the total world population (Source: based on worldometer elaboration of the United Nations data.) CNN World writes, "It is estimated that India will surpass China almost by the year 2023 in terms of population." There has been an exponential growth in our population since our independence, i.e. 1947. The Population of India at the time of independence was around 34 crore, whereas we are expected to reach about 165 crore in the year 2050. (Source: Govt. of India)

Causes of Population Explosion

The major cause of the problem is low literacy among economically backward people. It is a common belief among them that more children will help them in solving their problem of poverty as they will have more hands to earn. Child marriages are prevalent in many Indian states even today. People are still gender-biased, and the desire to have a male child results in giving birth to more children.

Impacts of Population Explosion

This population explosion is impacting the entire globe. The significant increase in the population has led to the over utilisation of natural resources. Also, it has increased poverty among the people, and the gap between the rich and poor has increased dramatically. Not only these, but the cost of living has also significantly increased due to excess demand for basic necessities. Illiteracy has increased because more people cannot educate their children because they cannot afford it.

Examples of Population Explosion

There is a slum at an approximate distance of 5 km from our home. The slum-dwellers live a very unhealthy life. They do not have access to the basic amenities of life. The government is non-responsive to the needs of the people there. The men work as daily wage labourers in the nearby glass factory. Many times, the children are also found working at the same factory.

My friends and I got to know about this through a local newspaper. We decided to go to this place and see if we could do anything to improve their living conditions. Upon conducting a small survey, we learnt that almost all the houses had at least 4-5 children each. And the total population of the particular place showed shocking figures. We met with the district magistrate after an appointment and explained the situation. Also, we asked a few local people to accompany us so that the magistrate could listen to the problems and understand their pain.

When the magistrate learnt about the same, she immediately ordered her officers to accompany us and do the needful. We also took the initiative to make people understand the issue of population explosion and also organised various problems caused by the same. We motivated people to send their children to school. Also, the magistrate was very happy to see us working for the community and asked us to bring more such issues to her knowledge.

Equally, a good standard of living has to be provided to the children by educating them, providing them with healthy food and skill training, and also bringing an ample number of employment opportunities so that they can be an asset to the country.

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Essay On Population Explosion

Table of Contents

Short Essay On Population Explosion

Population explosion refers to the rapid growth of the human population, particularly in developing countries, resulting in a strain on resources and the environment.

Causes – The main causes of population explosion are improved medical care, increased food production, and declining death rates.

Consequences – The consequences of population explosion include food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, and increased competition for resources.

Overcrowding – Overcrowding is a major problem in many cities, leading to increased crime rates, traffic congestion, and a decline in the quality of life.

Strain on resources – The rapid growth of the population puts a strain on resources such as water, food, and energy, leading to higher prices and decreased access for many people.

Environmental degradation – The rapid growth of the population also contributes to environmental degradation, such as deforestation, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity.

Solutions – To address the population explosion, governments and organizations must promote family planning and education, improve access to birth control and reproductive health services, and invest in sustainable development practices.

In conclusion, population explosion is a complex issue with far-reaching consequences for individuals, communities, and the planet. Addressing this issue requires a multi-faceted approach that includes improved access to family planning services, education, and sustainable development practices.

Long Essay On Population Explosion

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Essay on Population Explosion for Students in English

• Updated on  
• Mar 8, 2024

On this page, we will discuss an essay on population explosion. Population refers to the number of people living in a particular area. For example, if 20 million people are living in Delhi, it means the population of Delhi is 20 million. However, population explosion refers to the sudden increase in population. Population explosion causes a burden on Earth’s natural resources, as the planet can only sustain a limited population. 

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Causes of Population Explosion
• 1.2 Impact of Population Explosion
• 1.3 Strategies and Policies to Address Population Explosion
• 2 10 Lines Essay on Population Explosion

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Overpopulation is by Far the Worst Kind of Pollution – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Long Essay on Population Explosion

‘Population explosion refers to the sudden and drastic increase in population. Population explosion is associated with the time of rapid population growth, generally caused by factors such as high birth rates, reduced mortality rates, improved healthcare, and advancements in technology. In India, the period from 1951 to 1981 is referred to as the period of population explosion. During this period, the annual growth rate was 2.2 percent.

Causes of Population Explosion

Several factors are responsible for the population explosion in a country. 

High Birth Rate

The high birth rate is one of the major causes of the population explosion. From 1951 to 1981, India’s population increased from 31 crore to 71 crore. This was mainly because of higher birth rates in both rural and urban areas. When the birth rate is higher than the death rate, there is an increase in population.

Reduced Mortality Rates

India’s current mortality rate is 9.45 deaths per 1000 inhabitants. With the advances in healthcare, sanitation, and medical technology, there is a decrease in mortality rates. It means the number of deaths per 1000 population is reduced and more people survive to reproductive age, leading to population growth.

High Level of Illiteracy

India’s current literacy rate is 77.7%. However, from 1951 to 1981, when there was a sudden increase in population, the literacy rate was only 18.33%. It was the low literacy rate during this period that resulted in a population explosion in India.

Religious and Social Factors

In several places, religious and social factors are responsible for population explosion. Some communities and religion’s beliefs promote large family size and contraception, impacting birth rates.

Early Marriage

The rapid increase in population is often associated with early marriage. In India, the legal marriage age for men is 21 and for women is 18. Early marriage results in a longer span of reproductive activity. In developed countries, the legal marriage age is generally 21 years or above. 

When people migrate to different cities or countries, it impacts population growth. For example, immigration to urban areas can contribute to population explosion in those regions.

Gender Inequality

Societies with gender inequality experience higher birth rates, as women have limited control over family planning decisions. Societies with restricted women’s rights lack control over their bodies and decisions about childbirth. This can lead to unwanted pregnancies and higher fertility rates.

Also Read: Essay on Peer Pressure for Students

Impact of Population Explosion

Nature is the first victim of population explosion. As the global population increases, the demand for resources increases. From depletion of natural resources to economic crises, population explosion affects society as a whole.

Depletion of Natural Resources

With the increased human population, the demand for natural resources such as water, land, forests, and minerals increases. Overexploitation of these resources will eventually deplete natural ecosystems and disrupt ecological balance.

Deforestation

Humans need land to build houses. With increasing population, the need for land increases and there is only limited land available on Earth. This will result in deforestation as forests will be cleared for human settlement, agriculture, and infrastructure development. This will result in habitat loss for many plant and animal species.

Increased Unemployment and Poverty

An increase in population means a large number of workforce. However, there are not sufficient employment opportunities to sustain everyone. This will result in increased unemployment and poverty.

Increased Air and Water Pollution

Air and water pollution are the results of human activities. Increased population density is associated with increased industrialization and urbanization. This will result in increased air and water pollution. The release of toxic substances in water and air pollutes these life-saving resources. 

Waste Generation

The increase in population leads to increased waste generation. Inadequate waste management can result in pollution of land, water bodies, and the atmosphere, posing threats to both human and environmental health.

Also Read: Green Revolution Essay in 100, 200 and 500 Words in English

Strategies and Policies to Address Population Explosion

Implementing realistic strategies and policies that promote sustainable population growth, improve reproductive health, and ensure the well-being of individuals and communities can surely help with population explosion. 

Promotion of Family Planning Programmes

Easy access to family planning services like contraceptives and reproductive health education can be of great help to deal with population explosion. People must understand the importance of family planning and make civilised decisions.

Education and Women Empowerment

Investing in education and the empowerment of women can help build a just society. Women must become aware of the population explosion and its consequences. The promotion of gender equality will ensure that women have equal opportunities in education, employment, and decision-making.

Enhanced Healthcare Facilities

A strong healthcare system provides essential maternal and child health services, including antenatal care, safe childbirth, and postnatal care. However, people must have easy access to healthcare services to address issues related to maternal mortality and morbidity.

Public Awareness Campaigns

Public awareness campaigns can help with family planning and making informed decisions about having children. Media platforms and the internet can help raise awareness about reproductive health and family planning.

Global Cooperation

Overpopulation or population explosion is not a regional issue. Eventually, it will affect the world as a whole. Therefore, global cooperation is essential to address the population explosion. Moreover, it can create a platform where people from different backgrounds can put creative and innovative ideas to address the population explosion.

10 Lines Essay on Population Explosion

Here is a 10-line essay on population explosion.

• Population explosion is the sudden increase in the population of a region or a county.
• In India, the period from 1951 to 1981 is known as the period of population explosion.
• Its causes are high birth rates, reduced mortality rates, and improved healthcare.
• Rapid population growth places immense pressure on natural resources, leading to environmental degradation.
• Family planning programs play a crucial role in addressing population explosion by promoting responsible reproduction.
• Education and empowerment, particularly for women, contribute to informed family planning decisions.
• Economic development and poverty reduction are linked to lower fertility rates.
• Population explosion can result in resource depletion, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity.
• Public awareness campaigns are essential to destigmatize family planning and promote its acceptance.
• Sustainable development requires a balanced approach to address both human needs and environmental conservation.

Ans: ‘Population explosion refers to the sudden and drastic increase in population. Population explosion is associated with the time of rapid population growth, generally caused by factors such as high birth rates, reduced mortality rates, improved healthcare, and advancements in technology. In India, the period from 1951 to 1981 is referred to as the period of population explosion. During this period, the annual growth rate was 2.2 percent.

Ans: Population explosion means the sudden and drastic increase in he human population of a city, region, or country.

Ans: The decades from 1951 to 1981 are known as the people of population explosion in India.

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Population Explosion Essay For Students and Children in 1000 Words

May 30, 2022 by ReadingJunction Leave a Comment

In this article, you will read “Population Explosion Essay” for students and children in 1000 words. It includes meaning, causes, effects, and control tips about population explosion.

Table of Contents

Population Explosion Essay (1000 Words)

Population explosion has been a major concern in some countries. For India , it is in a continuous dramatic phase.

The rapid growth of people in a certain area gives rise to this issue. Should the government take any major step or significant rule to bring this to an end?

What should be your contribution to this revolutionary change? Well, these questions have the right answers.

Some proper majors can play important roles in this major issue. You will find them right here, within this content. 

Population Explosion Meaning

When you search for it on Google, an explanation pops up. It shows that there has been a sudden and large increase in the size of the population .

In an area, the number of people increases over time. When it gets a boost within a few calendar days, this is something major to focus on.

The increase in the number of people within a confined region or place gives rise to this major issue. Many countries these days come across such issues. You find a higher population rate in cities than in villages . 

However, things were different in the past. Due to the revolution in industries, IT departments, finance sectors, and all other economic points, cities have become the centres of attraction. With 

Population Explosion in India

That’s what the population explosion looks like. It is the increasing number of people in a selected area.

For India, this has been a major issue since its independence. During those periods, the number of people was not like today’s growth. 

Even if a large number of people were there, it was still acceptable. Due to the lack of improvements in medical science, many suffer from life-taking diseases like diarrhoea, chickenpox, measles, and much more. 

Those were tough times to survive these deadly epidemics. Medical science wasn’t that popular with certain permanent cures.

Things are different with time. With certain revolutions in such sectors, people won’t fall for these traps. 

In different cases, some epidemics in the past played huge roles in the elimination of a mass number of citizens.

With proper medication with revolution, the death ratio receives a declining graph. That raises the population rate. 

Causes of Population Explosion

The term population explosion or overpopulation signifies a lot of reasons . Each human has the authority to claim the natural resources of the earth.

Due to this rising issue, it may get slightly compromised in different circumstances. 

Some unique reasons are there that explain these bizarre conditions: 

1. Falling Mortality Rate

According to the WHO, there were 8.8 million infant deaths in 1990. However, the numbers were not the same in 2017.

The reduced number was 4.1 million. It was like half of the population had managed. 

At the same time, the lifespans of people are increasing around the world. As per the survey, the global average life expectancy has doubled since 1900.

With the advancements in technology , medicine, and general hygiene , the death rate is declining.

Falling mortality rates are just one explanation for the mathematical increasing rates in population numbers with fewer fatalities.

2. Underutilised Contraception 

With the steady fall of the global fertility rate, the numbers are still not enough to control overpopulation. In the 1950s, a woman gave birth to five children on average. As per today’s calculation, the average value is 2.4.

This is a promising trend among all literate couples. Yet, most parts of the globe have not accepted the concept.

With the inclusion of religious beliefs and social norms, women just fail to plan properly for their family-making processes. 

The unintended rate of pregnancy was about 44% between 2010 and 2014. With the lack of family planning methods among women, overpopulation arises unknowingly. 

3. Lack of Female Education

With higher possibilities, a woman should know her priorities in family planning. However, this mindset or education process is not that simple to conduct.

Although female education around the world has positive responses to growth, the gender gap still exists. 

With a rough estimation, around 130 million girls around the world can’t make it to their primary school. Encouraging education among women is the factor that is lacking.

So, this gives rise to the worst Population Explosion in different under-developed or undeveloped areas. 

Effects & Consequences of Population Explosion

A logical reason for this Population Explosion issue is the reduction and strain on resources. It is like an additional burden on mother nature and all its natural products.

More people increase higher demands for water, food, housing, healthcare, energy, transportation, and more.

Here are some major consequences that overpopulation can generate:

1. Increased Conflicts

Well, higher population growth can trigger many significant conflicts, like political unrest and violence. The trigger in terms of the number of people is not good for any environmental stability. It generates natural disruption in different sectors. 

Wars from the past are the best examples. What are the reasons for all those conflicts? Well, they are about land, water, and energy resources.

War zones were there in the middle-east or other regions of the earth . What are these conflicts telling us? The major part of these issues takes over due to overpopulation.

2. Ecological Degradation 

With the increasing rate of population, the creation of pressure on ecological sections is obvious.

It starts with more deforestation , degradation of biodiversity, emissions of pollution , and higher climate changes . Apart from these effects, some uncommon issues are still there.

This issue won’t stop unless the government and citizens both do something. The higher population can lead to ecological disruption.

Also, it threatens the collapse of life on earth. As per the current population spike, this is a major concern for all ecologists around the world.

Scientists have found a result from recent research that a family with one fewer child can reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by 58.6 tonnes. That’s a big number to count.

3. Higher Risk of Pandemics and Disasters 

The growing number of people provokes many devastating pandemics. The human world has witnessed a lot of tough situations, such as COVID-19, Ebla, Zika Virus, West Nile Virus, Spanish Flu, and much more. 

The chances of getting into such tough periods are increased with a higher population rate. The encounters with diseases are due to a period of increased outbreak activity. The world is destroying the wildlife habitats of the world.

Coming into contact with wild animals regularly reduces the chances of different deadly diseases. With a higher population, you can clearly understand how difficult it is for us to keep social distance amid the pandemic.

Population Explosion Control Tips

When you talk about overpopulation, this tends to be a serious discussion. The controlling fact, it requires empowerment and awareness among all groups of people.

This time, every person should understand what is significant to put an end to this overgrowing population.

Combo efforts can make a huge change. They are about spreading awareness and reducing myths or false beliefs in your mind.

With the right order of raising listeners to this query can solve the issue. It is not about a one-time movement.

Also, negotiating some major steps towards limiting the number of children is important. Practising a few steps like family planning, safe intercourse, and educating each person in different areas can solve the explosion rate. 

Population Explosion and Birth Control

The relationship between birth control and overpopulation is quite significant. They are just directly proportional, to say in mathematical terms. The higher the birth rate, the higher the population growth.

Explaining birth control signifies preventing pregnancy, controlling the growth of the population, and raising awareness of the protection of STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases).

An artificial method is there to prevent pregnancy after a consequence of sexual intercourse. Its name is contraception.

The methods come with the following steps to conduct:

• Prevent the egg production.
• Do not let sperm get attached to the lining of the womb. 
• Keep the egg separate from the sperm.

Also, fifteen to twenty types of contraceptive methods are there. They are not 100% safe and ideal. However, these procedures promise a low rate of risk.

The following methods are the safest:

• Injectables.
• Surgical methods.
• Oral contraceptives.
• Abstinence.
• Natural/Traditional method.

Controlling the population is quite a major issue in different regions of the world. Still, countries and their governments must take some significant steps to make things move.

A few practises are necessary to promote the prevention of population explosion. With the right use of awareness and birth rate control, prevention will be easier. 

The problem of population explosion is a common one across all countries. However, some countries like India, China, the USA, and Indonesia are the major regions.

The rapid growth of people may be subject to unstable social progress with lousy economic growth. For sustainable management of natural resources, it is important to take control of this matter. 

However, there is a sizable difference between the social and private interests in the reduction of the fertility rate. The more people get to know about such problems, the easier it is to achieve this rate under control.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Demography — The Population Explosion: Causes and Consequences

The Population Explosion: Causes and Consequences

• Categories: Demography Population Population Growth

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Words: 692 |

Published: Jan 29, 2019

Words: 692 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Distribution of food production, improve public health, conquest of disease.

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Bacterial model helps reveal how our bodies prevent population explosions—and cancer

by Weizmann Institute of Science

For the size of any population to remain stable over time, its birth and death rates must be balanced. If the birthrate is too high, there could be a population explosion; if it is too low, the population will shrink. This kind of balance exists, for example, among the 10,000 billion or so cells that make up our body.

When we reach adulthood, our stem cells may divide in order to renew body tissues, but after dividing several times, they become mature cells that divide a few times and then die. We only notice this equilibrium when it is disturbed—for example, when cells start dividing uncontrollably and create cancerous growths.

It follows that a balance between dividing and mature cells is a precondition for the existence of any multicellular organism, but how is it maintained? In a new study published recently in Cell , researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science used single-celled organisms to better understand how multicellular organisms maintain this equilibrium and protect themselves from cancer.

Cell differentiation is a biological "specialization training," in which a stem cell divides into two daughter cells , one of which assumes a defined role and acquires the characteristics needed to fulfill it. When cells undergo differentiation, their new specialty is useful to the multicellular organism of which they are a part, but they pay a heavy individual toll: The further they get along this specialization pathway, the more their ability to replicate decreases, until they are no longer able to divide at all.

This slow division of differentiated cells makes them vulnerable to populations of cells that divide and grow at a faster rate and can therefore take over the tissue and its resources. In some types of blood cancer, for example, stem cells in the bone marrow undergo a mutation that slows their differentiation and allows them to produce more daughter stem cells. These mutant cells take advantage of the natural weak point in the differentiation process, overcoming the population of healthy cells in a process known as mutant takeover.

Even though one mutation, on average, occurs in every cell division in our bodies, most of us enjoy decades of good health, through countless cell divisions, without experiencing mutant takeover. This suggests that there are effective mechanisms for dealing with this threat, even if they are hard to identify in complex organisms.

Scientists in Prof. Uri Alon's research group at Weizmann's Molecular Cell Biology Department decided to engineer E. coli bacteria, which do not usually differentiate, so as to make them undergo an artificial differentiation process, allowing researchers to study how a cell population deals with mutant takeover.

"There are a number of clear advantages to the E. coli model," explains Dr. David Glass, who led the study in Alon's lab. "One of them is a short generation time, which allowed us to study the development of mutants over hundreds of generations in the lab."

In order to produce E. coli bacteria capable of differentiating, researchers took inspiration from cyanobacteria called Anabaena, which differentiate—by cutting out certain segments of their DNA—in response to a shortage of nitrogen in their environment. Although the differentiated bacteria lose the ability to divide, they gain an important survival edge: the ability to supply themselves and the entire colony with nitrogen.

To mimic the differentiation process in the E. coli model, the scientists grew the bacteria in an environment that included antibiotics but lacked an essential amino acid. Using genetic engineering , they inserted into each bacterium several copies of a gene for resistance to antibiotics and several copies of a gene that produced the missing amino acid.

Before the process of artificial differentiation began—that is, when the bacteria were in a state equivalent to that of stem cells—the antibiotic-resistance genes were active, so the bacteria were able to divide and differentiate at a high rate despite the presence of the antibiotic.

When the differentiation process started by means of cutting out the antibiotic resistance genes, the bacteria gradually lost their ability to divide and differentiate, but they gained a survival advantage: The cuts in the DNA gradually activated the genes that produced the essential amino acid.

"To determine which differentiation rate works best, we held a competition between 11 strains of E. coli, each of which cuts out DNA segments—that is, differentiates—at a different rate," Glass explains. "We mixed equal quantities of the bacteria, grew them over the course of a few days and then checked to see which had survived.

"We discovered a very strong selection in favor of bacteria that differentiated at a moderate rate and found that strains of bacteria with a moderate rate of differentiation maintained the optimal balance of cell types in their population. At any given moment, only a minority of the cells were 'pure stem cells' or 'fully differentiated cells,' and a majority were found in intermediate states of the process."

This optimal, moderate differentiation rate is shared by various systems in the human body, in which a quantitative balance is maintained among stem cells , progenitor cells at different stages of differentiation and differentiated cells that occasionally die and are replaced by new ones.

To keep the population size steady, it is important to maintain that equilibrium even when environmental conditions change. To find out whether the bacteria in their model indeed maintained this equilibrium even under changed conditions, the researchers grew them in 36 different combinations of antibiotic and amino acid concentrations in the culture medium.

"We saw that in every situation—apart from the most extreme ones, such as a total absence of antibiotics—the cells' optimal differentiation rate remained in the moderate range and the equilibrium was maintained," Glass explains. "This means that the population equilibrium characterizing the differentiation model we developed is, to a large extent, immune to environmental changes and threats."

But is a population of bacteria that is differentiating at an optimal rate also immune to mutant takeover, like the systems in multicellular organisms?

To test the ability of these bacteria to withstand mutant takeover, the researchers grew them over many generations and checked whether random mutations appeared during the long growth period, creating bacteria that do not differentiate at all and divide uncontrollably. In other words, do mutant bacteria bring about mutant takeover, or are they suppressed at an early stage?

The first time they conducted the experiment, the researchers were disappointed to find mutant takeovers in half of the cases. "We found that when a genetic change breaks the connection between differentiation slowdown and getting that survival advantage, mutants that do not differentiate can take over," Glass adds.

Next, the researchers repeated the experiment with a new bacterial strain that was genetically engineered to be immune to the identified mutation. "We managed to grow around 270 generations of differentiating bacteria, and no mutant takeover occurred. Unfortunately, the invasion of Israel on October 7 cut the experiment short, and the bacteria may well be even more resilient," Glass says.

"We showed that a system in which differentiating E. coli cells stop dividing but gain a survival advantage can maintain an optimal population balance and avert mutant takeover. Many diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders, are unique to multicellular organisms. When we genetically engineer more and more characteristics of multicellular systems in single-celled organisms, we can uncover the weak points and look for them in human tissue too."

"Beyond basic science, these new findings could also have an impact on the use of bacteria in industry," Glass adds. "Genetically engineered bacteria are currently used in the large-scale production of insulin, enzymes and other substances used by humans. Creating a population of differentiating bacteria that maintains its equilibrium, renews itself and even prevents mutant takeover could be very useful in these production processes."

Journal information: Cell

Provided by Weizmann Institute of Science

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Population Explosion – A Stark Reality in India

From Current Affairs Notes for UPSC » Editorials & In-depths » This topic

* First published: August, 2019; Last Updated: November 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, addressed the problem of population explosion in India. He termed those who opt for smaller families as patriots. He argued that the development and prosperity of the nation begin only when all the individuals are healthy and resourceful. He appealed for the public effort to reduce the population at the ground level. This speech comes with the backdrop of the UN Population Projections report that estimated that India will be the most populous country in the world through the current century.

This topic of “Population Explosion – A Stark Reality in India” is important from the perspective of the UPSC IAS Examination , which falls under General Studies Portion.

What is the population explosion?

• Population explosion is the sudden increase in the size of the population.
• This term was coined by the American Sociologist, Kingsley Davis.
• If the trend of high population growth is left unchecked, there will be several repercussions like unemployment , poverty , poor standards of living, a larger gap between the rich and the poor, lesser resources, greater exploitation of natural resources, etc.

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What are the causes of population explosion?

In India, the causes of overpopulation are as follows:

• High Birth Rate :
• Meaning : Birth rate is the number of new-borns per thousand persons in a year.
• Causes : The causes of the high birth rate are as follows:
• Poverty : Many poor families consider their children as assets . This is because children can help support the family’s income by working at an early age.
• Illiteracy : Many people are not aware of the consequences of overpopulation.
• Social pressure : Many families feel that male children are essential. Therefore this increased the birth rate exponentially.
• Early marriage : Many individuals are pressured into marriage by society at a very early age. This also contributes to the overpopulation.
• Low Death Rate :
• Meaning : Death rate is the number of deaths per thousand persons in a year.
• Causes : The causes of the low death rate:
• Improved management of epidemics : The high death rates are mainly caused due to epidemics. Enhanced medical facilities in both urban and rural areas have highly contributed to the low mortality rate. With the improvement of medical technologies and life-saving drugs, the task of reducing the mortality rate has become easier.
• Disaster Management : The advancement of early warning systems and evacuation procedures has contributed to the decline of death rates caused by natural and man-made disasters.

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Is India overpopulated?

• India is currently the second-most populous country in the world after China.
• According to the UN report, World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, India is estimated to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in the world by 2027.
• This report was published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
• According to this report, there will be an additional 273 million people between now and 2050 in India.
• India is said to remain the most populous country through the end of the current century
• This report also stated that the world’s population may increase by 2 billion people in the next thirty years i.e., from the current 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050.
• The previous UN reports too had predicted that India will surpass China as the world most populous county in the world.
• As of 2019, China has 1.43 billion people while India houses 1.37 billion individuals.
• In other words, China and India hold 19 and 18 percent of the world population respectively as of 2019.
• However, according to the National Family Health Survey, India’s population growth is not uniform.
• In India, the Total Fertility Rate differs across various wealth quintiles.
• The poorest wealth quintile has a total fertility rate of 3.2 children per woman.
• The second-lowest wealth quintile has a TFR of 2.5 children per woman.
• The richest quintile has TFR of 1.5 children per woman.
• This shows that population growth is high only in the economically weaker section of the Indian society.

Is population a boon or a bane to the Indian economy?

• A population can be an asset if the youth of the country has access to education, skill development, increased employment opportunities, etc.
• However, currently, India faces a very high unemployment rate.
• Many in the Indian population are illiterate and don’t have access to education.
• It is estimated that India is currently producing 25 million job seekers but provides jobs to only 7 million.
• If this is not addressed soon, the Indian population may become a liability.
• The current government is bearing the burden of providing the access to clean drinking water, houses, cooking fuel, electricity , and healthcare to the whole of the Indian population and is aiming to create a $5trillion economy.
• Also, India’s landmass is only 35-40% of China’s landmass.
• India cannot sustain the current rate of population growth due to the limited geographical area.
• If these crises are not addressed soon, India may face various negative repercussions like poverty, pollution, poor standard of living, etc.

Is harsh population control a solution?

• Both India and China had experimented with stringent population control measures.
• China’s One-Child Policy had increased the proportion of old population while it simultaneously decreased the younger population.
• India, during the Emergency, had undertaken similar measures to reduce India’s population.
• This policy faced scathing criticism from the world and has not been tried since by any of the governments since.

What are the solutions to counter overpopulation?

Certain measures can be taken to address the overpopulation. They are as follows:

• Encouraging late marriages : Many in Indian society opt for early marriages due to various reasons like social pressures, traditions, etc. If late marriages become the norm, it will considerably reduce the birth rate.
• Spreading awareness : It is essential to spread awareness among the public about the negative consequences of the overpopulation. This can be done through education, public forums, media, etc. It is essential to provide free education to women at least till the college level so that they need not be dependent on their male counterparts for survival and are willing to participate in the workforce.
• Reduction of infant mortality rate : It is essential to bring down the infant mortality rate. This is because, due to high infant mortality rates, many opt for increased birth rate to offset the loss.
• Women empowerment : Women must be empowered through education, skill development, financial inclusion so that they can become independent and free from the shackles of the social norms and constraint.
• Government schemes on par with efficient family planning : Many opt for having children for the purpose of security during the later stage of life. If the government provides enough security through increased welfare schemes for the older population, people will opt for far lesser children.
• Promotion of the girl child : India is a society where the male child has far more importance than their female counterparts. Therefore many families tend to continue having children until a male child is born. Government policies must focus on the increased promotion of female children to address this problem. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme is a step in the right direction.

Way Forward:

• India has 13% of unwanted fertility – the product of unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, mainly due to the lack of education, awareness, family planning services, etc.
• If this issue is addressed, India will have 30 million lesser people by 2030.
• The government must increase its investment in the health sector. Currently, India invests only 1.3% of its total GDP on the health sector of which only 4% is dedicated to family planning.
• The government must address the issue at the ground level as the population growth rate differs at various parts of the country due to the social, cultural and economic diversity of India.

Population Growth: According to the UN World Population Prospects (WPP), 2022, India will surpass China as the most populous country by 2023, with a population of 140 crore. India currently accounts for 17.5% of the global population.

• This is four times the population of India when it gained independence in 1947. (34 crore).
• India is expected to reach 150 crore by 2030 and 166 crore by 2050.

Decline in India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR): In 2021, India’s TFR fell below the replacement level fertility (2.1 children per woman) to two. India had a TFR of six in the 1950s, following independence. Except for Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Manipur, and Meghalaya, several states have achieved a TFR of two. The main reasons for this are high illiteracy rates, widespread child marriage, high under-five mortality rates, low female labor-force participation, lower contraceptive use, and a lack of economic and political power among women.

Improvements in Mortality Indicators:

• Life expectancy at birth increased from 32 years in 1947 to 70 years in 2019.
• Infant mortality fell from 133 in 1951 (for the big states) to 27 in 2020.
• The under-five mortality rate fell from 250 in the 1940s to 41 in 2019, while the maternal mortality ratio fell from 2,000 in the 1940s to 103 in 2019.

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Beyond the brink: Pakistan's population explosion

Us Pakistanis are a staggering 225 million people and counting … we’ll be more by the time you finish reading this.

A ticking time bomb of population growth threatens Pakistan, joining the league of the world's top five most populous countries, with a staggering 225 million people and counting. The repercussions are hitting hard, straining vital resources, crippling the economy, and overwhelming social infrastructure.

Understanding population growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's population has been experiencing exponential growth over the past few decades. Several factors contribute to this increase including: high birth rates, limited access to family planning services, cultural norms, and religious beliefs. According to the UN, Pakistan's population is projected to reach 403 million by 2050 if the current growth rate continues unchecked.

Population control in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, which shares a similar cultural and historical background with Pakistan, has managed to curb its population growth significantly.

Bangladesh faced a population crisis in the 1970s, with a high fertility rate and a rapidly growing population. The government recognised the need for immediate action and implemented various policies and programmes to address the issue. One of the landmark initiatives, launched in 1976, was the National Family Planning Programme. This programme aimed to provide accessible and affordable family planning services to couples across the country.

Through this initiative, Bangladesh emphasised the importance of family planning, educated the population about contraceptive methods, and made contraceptives readily available. Additionally, the government partnered with non-governmental organisations and community-based groups to create awareness and deliver family planning services effectively.

Success stories and lessons for Pakistan

Bangladesh's efforts in population control have given rise to remarkable results. From a fertility rate of around 6.3 in the 1970s, the country has successfully reduced it to 2.1, as of the latest available data. This achievement is considered a significant milestone, as a fertility rate of 2.1 is considered the replacement level, where the population size stabilises.

To achieve such success, Bangladesh focused on empowering women and enhancing their access to education and healthcare, leading to an increase in women's participation in the workforce. Educated and empowered women are more likely to make informed decisions regarding family planning, leading to reduced birth rates.

Moreover, Bangladesh's efforts in improving healthcare and reducing child mortality also contributed to population control. When families have confidence in the survival of their children, they tend to have fewer children.

Furthermore, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in Bangladesh is higher than that of Pakistan. CPR measures the percentage of married or in-union women aged 15 to 49 who are using, or whose sexual partner is using, any method of contraception. Bangladesh's CPR stands at 65.0%, while Pakistan's CPR is 34.1%. This substantial variation reflects the disparity in family planning services and awareness between the two countries.

Challenges Posed by Population Growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's rapid population growth has led to various challenges, including increased pressure on resources, inadequate healthcare facilities, and a strain on educational institutions ― overcrowded classrooms and insufficient resources hinder the delivery of quality education. The demand for food, water, housing, and energy has surged, leading to resource scarcity and environmental degradation.

The healthcare system faces difficulties in providing quality services to the growing population. Maternal and child mortality rates remain high, and the burden of disease has intensified.

Causes of high population growth in Pakistan

Lack of family planning and birth control The lack of sufficient family planning and birth control measures stands as a significant factor contributing to the country's rapid population growth. A prevalent issue, particularly in rural areas, is the limited awareness and reluctance to adopt modern contraceptive methods. As a result, many families have larger numbers of children than they can adequately support. The absence of accessible family planning services and comprehensive education on reproductive health leads to unintended pregnancies and exacerbates the strain on resources, healthcare, and education systems. Empowering individuals with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about family planning will not only help curb the population growth but also improve the overall well-being and prosperity of Pakistan's communities.

High infant mortality rate: Historically, Pakistan has grappled with high infant mortality rates, primarily attributed to limited access to adequate healthcare and sanitation facilities. This unfortunate reality compelled families to have larger numbers of children, as they hoped some would survive to adulthood. While progress has been made in recent years to improve healthcare and reduce infant mortality, this past reality continues to influence population growth patterns. The fear of losing children at a young age still resonates with many families, leading to a preference for larger family sizes as a form of insurance against the uncertainties of infant survival. By ensuring better survival prospects for infants, Pakistan can gradually shift towards a more sustainable population growth trajectory.

Low literacy rate and education: The persistently low literacy rate, particularly among women, plays a significant role in driving higher population growth. The lack of access to education limits individuals' understanding of the importance of family planning and reproductive health. Educated individuals are more likely to comprehend the benefits of smaller family sizes, leading to informed decisions about family planning and birth control. However, the prevailing educational disparities, particularly in rural and marginalised communities, hinder the dissemination of crucial information about reproductive health and family planning. Empowering both men and women with education and knowledge is essential to breaking the cycle of high population growth. By investing in quality education, promoting gender equality, and advocating for comprehensive reproductive health education, Pakistan can pave the way for a more informed and empowered society, contributing to sustainable population management and overall development.

Social and cultural norms: Social and cultural norms have a profound impact on shaping reproductive behaviours, particularly in certain communities where having many children is seen as a symbol of prestige and family honor. These deep-rooted traditions often prioritise larger family sizes, perpetuating the notion that having numerous children signifies prosperity and social standing. Consequently, there is limited acceptance and understanding of family planning methods within these communities. Challenging these norms requires sensitively addressing cultural beliefs and engaging community leaders to promote awareness about the benefits of smaller family sizes and comprehensive family planning. Encouraging open dialogues about reproductive health and breaking the stigma surrounding birth control can empower individuals to make informed choices about their family size, contributing to a more sustainable population growth in Pakistan. By combining culturally sensitive approaches with education and advocacy, the nation can gradually shift away from excessive population growth and foster a society where reproductive decisions are based on informed choices rather than social pressures.

Religious beliefs and practices: In Pakistan, religious beliefs and practices play a significant role in influencing population growth. As a country where religion holds immense significance in the lives of its people, certain interpretations of religious teachings may encourage larger families. Some religious beliefs emphasise the importance of procreation and view children as a blessing and a source of divine favor. Consequently, these interpretations may contribute to a cultural preference for larger family sizes within religious communities. It is essential to recognise the sensitivity of religious beliefs and engage in constructive dialogues to promote understanding about family planning and reproductive health. By fostering a balanced approach that respects religious values while also advocating for informed reproductive choices, Pakistan can work towards addressing population growth in a way that is culturally respectful and sustainable. Education and awareness campaigns can play a crucial role in highlighting the importance of family planning and empowering individuals to make decisions that align with their religious beliefs and personal circumstances.

Effects of high population growth

The rapid increase in population has various consequences for Pakistan:

Pressure on resources With expanding population, the demand for essential resources such as water, food, and energy has reached unprecedented levels, exerting immense strain on the country's already limited natural reserves. The growing needs of its people are putting a considerable burden on the infrastructure and the environment, threatening the sustainability and equilibrium of vital ecosystems.

Unemployment and poverty The challenge of high population growth exacerbates the pressing issues of unemployment and poverty. With a rapidly expanding workforce, the economy finds it increasingly difficult to generate enough jobs to accommodate the influx of job seekers. As a result, unemployment rates soar, leaving a significant portion of the population struggling to secure stable and dignified livelihoods. The lack of employment opportunities directly contributes to the persistence of poverty, trapping many individuals and families in a cycle of economic hardship.

Strain on healthcare and education The escalating population places considerable strain on the healthcare system and education infrastructure, posing significant challenges in providing essential services to all citizens. As the population expands, the demand for healthcare services increases, stretching the already limited resources and facilities to their limits. Access to quality healthcare becomes more difficult for many, particularly in remote and underserved areas, leading to disparities in healthcare outcomes. Similarly, the education sector faces similar challenges, with a surge in the number of students overwhelming schools and colleges. As a result, maintaining the standard of education becomes a daunting task, hindering the country's ability to provide equal educational opportunities to all.

Environmental impact The mounting population has significant environmental implications, giving rise to increased waste generation and pollution, which, in turn, exacerbates environmental degradation and contributes to the effects of climate change. With more people producing waste and demanding resources, the pressure on natural ecosystems intensifies. Improper waste management practices strain the environment, as landfills overflow and pollution contaminate air, water, and soil.

The accelerated pace of urbanisation further encroaches on green spaces and exacerbates deforestation, threatening biodiversity and ecological balance. Moreover, the escalating emissions from industries, transportation, and energy consumption contribute to climate change, resulting in extreme weather events, erratic rainfall patterns, and rising temperatures. Addressing these environmental challenges requires a concerted effort from the government, industries, and individuals to adopt sustainable practices, promote renewable energy, implement effective waste management systems, and foster environmental awareness and conservation efforts to safeguard Pakistan's natural heritage for future generations.

Policies to counteract underlying causes of high population growth in Pakistan

Family planning and awareness programmes: To control population growth effectively, Pakistan must prioritize family planning and create awareness about its benefits. Family planning allows individuals to make informed choices regarding the number and spacing of their children, leading to healthier and more sustainable families.

Educational campaigns on family planning, contraception, and reproductive health should be promoted through various media platforms and community outreach programs. Engaging religious leaders and influencers in these campaigns can help dispel misconceptions and myths surrounding family planning methods.

Women empowerment and reproductive rights: When women are educated, financially independent, and have access to reproductive healthcare, they can make informed decisions about their reproductive choices. Investing in women's education and healthcare is an investment in the future of the country. Furthermore, ensuring women's reproductive rights is essential for population control. Women should have the right to decide when and how many children they want to have, empowering them to break free from traditional norms and achieve their aspirations.

Healthcare and child mortality: Pakistan must invest in improving healthcare infrastructure, ensuring access to quality healthcare services for all citizens, especially in rural areas. Reducing child mortality rates is directly linked to population control. When families are assured of their children's survival, they are more likely to have fewer children. Pakistan can learn from Bangladesh's successful efforts in reducing child mortality and implement similar strategies to achieve positive outcomes.

Economic implications of population growth: Population growth has significant economic implications for Pakistan. A rapidly growing population poses challenges to economic development, as the demand for jobs and resources increases. Investing in education, skill development, and job creation is essential to harnessing the demographic dividend.

Urbanisation and rural development: Balancing urban and rural development is crucial to controlling population growth. Providing adequate opportunities and facilities in rural areas can discourage mass migration to urban centers. This balanced approach ensures that resources are distributed more equitably, leading to a more stable population growth pattern.

The take home

Knowledge holds the key to recognising the severity of Pakistan's population challenge and aiding the government in tackling this critical issue. Women's empowerment emerges as a potent force in curbing population growth rates, while raising literacy levels is crucial to achieving our population control goals. Singapore and China's successful adoption of two-child and one-child policies offer valuable lessons. To combat poverty, disparity, and other pressing problems, Pakistan must prioritise population regulation as the initial step. Meaningful discussions on family planning are imperative. Our resources are depleting, cities overcrowded and polluted, and the environment deteriorating. Pakistan's multiple woes, from poverty to climate change, are exacerbated by unchecked population growth. We must act now to unlock Pakistan's potential and address the social and economic challenges that lie ahead.

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Essay on “Population explosion in Pakistan” for CSS, PMS, and All Judiciary Examinations

• November 21, 2021
• Essay for CSS PMS and Judiciary Exam

This is an essay on “Population explosion in Pakistan” for CSS, PMS, and All Judiciary examinations. Increasing Population is a serious issue in today’s modern world. It can result from an increase in births, a decline in the mortality rate, an increase in immigration, or a depletion of resources. So here is a complete essay on the topic of “population explosion in Pakistan” for CSS, PMS, and All Judiciary Examinations.

In this essay, you will learn about the causes of the Population explosion in Pakistan, the effects of population, and various measures to stop population.

Essay on “Population Explosion in Pakistan”

Population in the world.

Conditions in Pakistan

Population table

Better medical facility

Lack of education, lack of planning of the government as per the resources, the desire for a male child, early marriages, abundant food resources, effect on economic growth.

• Problems in urban cities like Karachi

Effect on agriculture

Urbanization, social evils, role of media, role of a religious scholar, education for all, resources as well as population.

• Chinese model

Essay on “Population explosion in Pakistan” for CSS, PMS, and All Judiciary Examinations

Conditions in pakistan and population table.

At the time of partition, the area, which today comprises Pakistan, had a population of 33 million. The following table shows the population of Pakistan at different times since its inception.

According to experts, under the same growth rate, the population of Pakistan would be greater than that of China by the year 2035.

Even after sixty-four years of its independence, Pakistan is still struggling to find a respectable place in the comity of nations. All the efforts made in the past seem to have gone in vain. Every sector of life today tells a sorry tale. The problem that could be blamed for all this sorry mess is overpopulation in the country. Overpopulation emerges as the main villain in Pakistan for a number of reasons. Every other problem mentioned earlier seems to have grown from the. demon of this overpopulation.

Literally speaking, overpopulation arises when the resources in a country fall short of meeting the needs of its people. A number of factors could lead to the emergence of overpopulation. Birth rate 1s the most common indicator that the countries today use to keep a check on population. Pakistan today suffers from a high birth rate in the country. But the birth rate was high even in the past and still, overpopulation was nowhere to be seen. What factors today have translated the high birth rate into overpopulation? The advancements in the medical field have led to a sharp decline in the death rate.

The life expectancy has increased due to the use of imported health technologies. So, a decline in the death rate has in other words led to the problem of overpopulation. Pakistan is a developing country and like many others like it is trying hard to survive in the capitalist world. A huge population of around eighteen crores, that could have been an asset to the country is today a huge liability. Fast increasing population is thus a source of constant danger for Pakistan .

Following is a brief discussion of some of the causes of overpopulation in our country:

• Warm climate (puberty attained by females at an early age)
• Joint family systems
• Lack of recreational facilities
• The belief that God is ‘Raziq’ (the belief that every child brings its food with him/her)
• Love for male issues (couple going for more babies)
• Illiteracy, people think that more children mean more working hands

There are three main causes of overpopulation. The first and second are linked to the advancement of medicine and public health, while the third is related to food distribution. Even though these are the main causes today, more causes can come about in the future.

First is the understanding of diseases and the use of medicine. Before the realization of the germ theory, many individuals did not know that diseases were spread through germs such as bacteria and viruses. With the adoption of these practices, humans were able to understand that germs caused these diseases and could be countered through practices such as medicine and vaccinations. With this new knowledge, death rates plummeted and new health practices relating to child birth helped improve birth rates.

Illiteracy is another important cause of overpopulation. That lacking education fails to understand the need to prevent excessive growth of population. They are unable to understand the harmful effects that overpopulation has. They are unaware of the ways to control the population. Lack of family planning is commonly seen in the illiterate lot of the world. This is one of the major factors leading to overpopulation. Due to ignorance, they do not take to family planning measures, thus contributing to a rise in population.

In Pakistan rural areas there is a trend of a large number of families and due to lack of awareness and proper knowledge people go on producing more and more children. So this trend could be changed if education will be provided to all members of society.

We think that we are progressing and adopting new values and trends but this is really not true and this is a fact that parents prefer boys over girls and consider their son as their future asserts. Who can support them later in life? So the desire for a male child is also the main reason for population growth in a society like Pakistan. So if we want to control the rising population so we should consider boys and girls like the same and value them. If this thing will be included in our thinking that girls also support their parents so this will discourage the practice of producing more and more children just for the desire of the male child.

Early marriage is also the main reason for the increase in population growth. As soon the girl grows parents start thinking about their marriages and when they find the reasonable proposal for them so they are in a hurry that they should get married and leave their education. Early marriages really contribute to rising in population growth and if we want to control it then early marriages should be avoided and education can help in delaying the age of marriage of the girls.

Next is the vast improvement of public health. Public health refers to the acquisition of three basic needs humans need: food, shelter, and water. For example, since the creation of plumbing, individuals have had the opportunity of accessing water. Another is the improvement of shelters which also allow humans to survive for longer periods.

Another is the improvement of food distribution. It is amazing to think that food can be transported all over the world and combined with preservation services, such as canned food, certain food can last forever. The improvement of food distribution bad ended the worries of starvation in many regions of the world; however, certain regions (such as parts of Africa) still exhibit famines from the lack of food.

Now let’s talk about some severe effects of population:

Overpopulation has badly hampered the economic growth in the country. The high population is responsible for a decline in per capita income. This leads to a decline in the 9urchasing power of the people. As the demand for goods decreases then “Demand & Supply” lack the investment in the country will also suffer. Such a stagnant economy will lead to the closing of factories and businesses and in return add to joblessness and poverty.

Even if the country somehow is successful in attracting foreign investment, still overpopulation will not allow these investments to have a positive effect on the country’s economy. A greater population means more hungry souls to feed. With the number of productive earning members in a family small compared to unproductive members, there is felt a drag on the limited income of poor families. This is the problem of the “Dependency ratio” which is acutely felt in poor countries.

For years, social services in the country have suffered even after sincere efforts by successive governments. The fact remains that more schools, hospitals, and parks are of little comfort if the the population keeps on increasing at an alarming rate.

Agriculture is another sector, which has been adversely affected by the rapid increase in population. About 70% of Pakistan’s population is employed in the agricultural sector. Overpopulation is even having an adverse effect on agricultural outcomes. More population means smaller farms, and that leads to a decline in productivity. Availability of cultivable land in 1990 was 0.17 hector per person and the estimated availability of cultivable land by the year 2025 will be 0.07 hector per person. The same would happen with the forests and also with the availability of freshwater.

People having smaller farms have no other choice but to migrate in the hope of a better life . This leads to urbanization, which itself is a major social problem .

Overpopulation has contributed to an increase in the number of social evils. Lawlessness, crime, and corruption are all the result of the population explosion. The fight over resources has divided the society into two groups i.e. those who have all and are not willing to share it and the second group that is fighting for its mere survival. This fight between haves and have-nots has the inherent seeds of conflict in it, which if erupted could imperil the peace and order in the society.

Overpopulation in cities has also contributed to toxic pollution. A greater number of vehicles on the roads mean the availability of large quantities of poisonous gas for people to inhale. Sewage problems and lack of clean drinking water can also be attributed to the population problem.

The world has touched the seven billion mark in population. After years of industrialization and technological advances, the world still suffers in providing basic necessities to the masses. Apart from a few exceptions in Europe having a negative birth rate, overpopulation is a common problem of many nations around the world.

Many of the countries have tried hard and to some extent, they have been successful. China, around three decades ago, was facing shortages in food but today it is the largest growing economy in the world. The “One Child Policy” has done wonders for this new economic power. China has also proved the fact that through proper planning a huge population could be transformed into an economic asset.

Solution for Population Explosion in Pakistan

Now the question arises of how we can tackle this problem. So for this here are some of the solutions.

It is the right time that we nip the evil in the bud with proper planning. Education is the key to success against the menace of overpopulation. It will not only generate awareness against the hazards of overpopulation among the masses but will also create a healthy environment for birth control methods to flourish. The poor literacy rate in Pakistan is certainly adding to the difficulties, already being faced by the health workers in their fight against the problem.

The role of media is also an important factor. With most of the population, illiterate electronic media could prove to be a huge success in getting the message across. Print media too needs to emphasize the problems of overpopulation on a more regular basis. Availability of birth control. methods in the remote areas of the country should be ensured. The role of lady health workers should be expanded and the good office of every union council should make their supervision compulsory.

“Devolution Plan” was devised to make the participation of people at the grassroots level. Now it is time we solved the problem of overpopulation with greater participation and support from these local councils. But this task will be not as easy to accomplish, as it may appear to be.

According to a report by Population Action International Washington, a great reason for the population increase in Pakistan is that the Government has made a very insignificant investment in the social sector owing to religious problems and secondly women having no say and freedom. A  conservative society like ours is certainly not ripe to carry out a war against overpopulation. Therefore, the role of religious leaders emerges as an important aspect if we are to succeed against this menace. Big landowners,s in rural areas too can influence the masses. It is high time they joined in against the fight for a better future.

Once these two classes are on the side of the government, there is no way that the government will not be able to solve the problem. Another factor that has for long proven to be a hurdle in solving the population problems is the poor state of our womenfolk in society. The rights of women must be restored and the discrimination against them must be stopped. In this context, Anti-Women Practices Bill was recently passed on Nov 16, 2011.

Many women in the country are aware of the problems generated by having large families but they.have little say in deciding about the strength of the family. ln a male-dominated society like ours women often falls victim to the blind wishes of their male partners. Women often die in labor and owing to the lack of gaps between successive births. Their health also deteriorates to an alarming stage.

Following recommendations can be implemented in order to control the population:

• Family planning facilities be made a part of health facilities,
• There should be a greater role for local and provincial governments
• Role of NGOs and doctors in the disbursement of Aid received for family panning
• Males should be urged to cooperate more
• Status of women to be raised in society as done by the present government by giving more seats in assemblies
• Better health and educational facilities for women
• The issue to be taken as a national crisis
• Role of media to be encouraged especially in rural areas
• Government programs should involve Ulemas and NGOs
• Greater participation of landlords

The problem of overpopulation is very serious because it leads to frustration, which means chaos. Chaos means anarchy and anarchy endangers the state.

Pakistan is today standing at a crossroads. It will either perish forever or will emerge as a stronger nation. What is needed is a vision and a sincere leadership that could transform dreams into reality. The problem of overpopulation has now started to haunt us and unless we tackle it pragmatically our dream of a bright and glorious future will just remain a pious wish. It needs a multipronged attack to deal with overpopulation.

A strong Pakistan should be our first priority and if we have to make certain hard decisions for its accomplishment no one should hesitate to lead and pull the trigger. Indeed, Pakistan comes first even before our personal vested interests.

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The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age

A group of experts met to discuss the images that have best captured — and changed — the world since 1955.

Supported by

By M.H. Miller ,  Brendan Embser ,  Emmanuel Iduma and Lucy McKeon

• June 3, 2024

This story contains graphic images of violence and death.

Let’s get this out of the way first: Of the dozens of photographers not represented here that a reasonable person might expect to have been included, the most conspicuous absentees include Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Richard Avedon, Dawoud Bey, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, Roy DeCarava, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Irving Penn. Putting together a list of the 25 most significant photographs since 1955 — both fine art photos and reportage — proved a difficult task for the panelists (even the chosen time frame was controversial). They were: the Canadian conceptual photographer Stan Douglas , 63; the Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê , 64; the acting chief curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, Roxana Marcoci, 66; the American documentary photographer Susan Meiselas , 75; the American photographer Shikeith , 35; and Nadia Vellam, 51, T’s photo and video director. Each participant (including myself, the moderator, 36) submitted up to seven possible nominees for the list. We gathered at The New York Times Building on a morning last February (with Shikeith joining on video from a shoot in Los Angeles) to begin our deliberations.

We chose judges from the realms of both fine art and reportage because, increasingly, the line between the two has collapsed. The modern age has been defined by photographs — images that began their lives in newspapers or magazines are repurposed as art; art has become a vehicle for information. Therefore, it was important to us and our jurors that we not draw boundaries between what was created as journalism and what was created as art. What was important was that the photographs we chose changed, in some way, how we see the world.

The conversation naturally turned into a series of questions. Like how important was it for a photograph to have expanded the possibilities of the medium? And how much did it matter who took a photo and what their intentions were? The list that emerged is less concerned with a historical chronology or an accepted canon than it is with a set of themes that have been linked indelibly to the photographic medium since its inception: labor and activism; war; the self and the family. Intriguingly, beyond an image by Wolfgang Tillmans from the ’90s, fashion photography is largely absent. So, too, are many world historical events that have been captured in landmark photographs, including the assassination of JFK, the fall of the Berlin Wall and anything from the pandemic lockdown or the presidency of Donald Trump. There were just too many other photographs to consider.

The process of producing the final list was clearly not scientific. It was more of a debate among a certain group of people on a certain day and is best considered that way. At the end of nearly four hours, jittery from caffeine, the group stood before a pile of crumpled masterworks on the floor as we assembled our chosen 25 images on a conference table. Many of our questions weren’t resolved (indeed, are unresolvable), but the results — which aren’t ranked but rather presented in the order in which we discussed them — are nothing if not surprising. — M.H. Miller

The conversation has been edited and condensed.

M.H. Miller: I thought we should start by talking about the time frame we settled on, starting in 1955.

Stan Douglas: It’s an agenda.

Miller: A little bit. It certainly shows an American bias, so I apologize to our Canadian representative — 1955 is really the beginning of the American civil rights movement, an era from which a number of us nominated photographs, and photography was so important in just making people aware of what was going on in the country. An-My, you chose Robert Frank’s picture of a streetcar in New Orleans, taken that year.

1. Robert Frank, “Trolley — New Orleans,” 1955

Robert Frank used “Trolley — New Orleans” as the original cover of his influential photo book “The Americans,” first published in the United States in 1959. Frank, a Swiss émigré, spent two years traveling the States and capturing what he saw. In this photograph, two Black passengers sit at the rear of a New Orleans streetcar while four white passengers sit at the front; all look out from a row of windows, the mullions between them emphasizing their strict separation. At the time of its publication, “The Americans” was considered by several critics to be a pessimistic, angry portrait of the country. (The magazine Popular Photography famously called it a “warped” and “wart-covered” depiction “by a joyless man.”) Many more viewers and artists, however, found inspiration in the direct, unromantic style pioneered by Frank, whose outsider status likely let him view America’s contradictions from a clarifying distance. He had “sucked a sad poem out of America onto film,” as Jack Kerouac wrote in an introduction to the book. This image, shot in the months before the Montgomery bus boycotts made segregation a national debate, showed America to itself, as if for the first time. The faces in the photographs, Kerouac wrote, don’t “editorialize or criticize, or say anything but ‘this is the way we are in real life.’” — Emmanuel Iduma

An-My Lê: I tried to look for things that spoke to me, but also spoke to a generation.

Douglas: If I had to choose a civil rights image, I wouldn’t choose this one. Great photograph. But something happening on the street would be more appropriate, I think, like the dog attacking protesters , or the photo with the firemen .

Roxana Marcoci: But this was the cover of “The Americans,” and it does happen in the street, actually. I think that what you’re saying is, it’s not a photojournalistic image.

Douglas: The most important thing to me is: does a photograph reveal a new reality, or reveal something that’s been hidden previously? I think that’s a key criterion for making it significant. What impact on the world can that image have? A European might not have recognized that this was happening in the U.S. Maybe a lot of Americans in the North didn’t realize this was happening in the U.S. And I love this photograph, so I’m very happy to keep it.

2. David Jackson, Mamie Till and Gene Mobley Standing Before the Body of Emmett Till at a Chicago Funeral Home, 1955

Mamie Till fixes her eyes on her dead son, as her fiancé, Gene Mobley, holding her, stares at the viewer. Emmett Till , 14, is laid out on a cot in a Chicago funeral home, his face disfigured and bloated. His mother allowed the photojournalist David Jackson to take this picture in September 1955, a few days after two white men had abducted and murdered Till while he was visiting relatives in Mississippi. Quickly acquitted by an all-white jury, the men would go on to sell their confession to Look magazine for $4,000. When this photo was published, first in Jet magazine and then in The Chicago Defender and other Black newspapers, it incited an unprecedented level of outrage in America over racial violence; Jet had to reprint the Sept. 15, 1955, issue in which it appeared because of high demand. For the same reason Mamie Till let this picture be taken, she chose to keep her son’s coffin open during the funeral. “The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all,” she said. An estimated 100,000 people came to view his body. Jackson’s photograph was a call to action for many, including Rosa Parks, who said she thought of Till when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus later that same year. — E.I.

Miller: I feel like you can’t have this conversation, especially with the year we designated as the starting point, without talking about Emmett Till. There’s the devastating series of photographs of Till’s funeral. But there’s also the one from the trial — when Till’s great-uncle is identifying the men who murdered his nephew. The judge didn’t allow that photographer, Ernest C. Withers, to shoot in the courtroom. So it’s a miracle that the picture exists, and that it’s composed as well as it is when it had to be taken in secret. And it’s a moment where you saw a larger shift taking place. Up to that point in the South, a Black witness identifying white defendants in court was unheard-of.

Marcoci: The picture [of his body] was also about the power of the witness, right?

Susan Meiselas: Oh, for sure. Mamie Till and her insistence on an open coffin: how brave an act that was. And it ran in Jet and moved around the world.

Douglas: The issue for me with the trial picture is that it needs a paragraph to explain why we’re looking at it.

Marcoci: The courtroom was a travesty. They went free. But this, Mamie Till with her son, created a generation of Black activists.

Shikeith: I grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Philadelphia, and when we were learning about Black history in the fourth or fifth grade, that picture was brazenly shared with students. It was probably the first time I learned how powerful a photograph can be in having real material change in the world. It’s an image that I’ve lived with my [whole] life, and that’s impacted how I viewed the world and racism and its violence. It scares me. But, you know, it’s the truth. The truth can be very scary for a lot of us.

Miller: Shikeith, you also selected this Gordon Parks photograph, which is one of two color images the group nominated from the 1950s and ’60s — and the second was taken from outer space.

3. Gordon Parks, “Department Store, Mobile, Alabama,” 1956

In 1956, Life magazine sent Gordon Parks to document the effects of Jim Crow segregation laws in the American South through the experiences of one extended family in Mobile, Ala. Parks was one of the few Black photojournalists to work for an establishment magazine at the time, and was known especially for his fashion photography, as is easily apparent from this image. For Life, he photographed everyday scenes — a church choir singing or children drinking from water fountains — intentionally capturing signs reading “White Only” or “ Lots for Colored .” “Department Store, Mobile, Alabama” (1956) was shot for the Life story, which ran at 12 pages under the title “The Restraints: Open and Hidden” but, for unknown reasons, it didn’t make the final edit, and it wasn’t published until 2012, when a five-volume collection of Parks’s photographs was released. “Department Store” has since become a belated icon, one of the most memorable images in a career that also includes directing the 1971 film “Shaft.” Notable most of all for its vivid color, a startling contrast to the predominantly black-and-white imagery from the civil rights era, the portrait depicts Joanne Thornton Wilson, then age 27, dressed in an ice-blue, A-line cocktail dress, with her young niece, Shirley Anne Kirksey, standing beneath the red neon “Colored Entrance” sign in front of a department store. Wilson’s upright posture and outward gaze — peering in the opposite direction of the sign’s blue arrow — subtly signify defiance. But there’s an intimacy and vulnerability in the picture, too. In 2013, Wilson, who went on to become a high school teacher, told the art historian Maurice Berger that she regretted that the strap of her slip had visibly fallen. “Dressing well made me feel first class,” she said. “I wanted to set an example.” She had set an example, of course, which Parks had recorded with such clarity: Wilson also told Berger that she refused to take her niece through the “colored” entrance. — Brendan Embser

Shikeith: I think what’s beautiful about this image is that it’s brilliantly composed — it uses beauty to draw you into a poignant moment in history, becoming a record of the Jim Crow laws in the Southern U.S. I tried to pick photographs that had an influence on me, and that I thought my mother would recognize, to indicate their influence on people who might operate outside of art history conversations. It [can be used as] a tool for educating even the youngest of minds about what marginalized communities went through.

Marcoci: I think that’s a great point: the pedagogical nature of photographs. In this picture, there’s the elegance and grace of these two figures, and then the ugliness of that “Colored Entrance” sign. There’s such a tension between them.

Nadia Vellam: You don’t immediately realize the context because you’re so attracted to the two people in the image. It asks you to spend more time looking.

Douglas: It’s quite an exquisite picture. It’s basically an X, which draws your eye into the center, which then takes you to that woman’s gaze outside the frame. Inside the frame, there’s something quite sweet. But outside — both beyond that door and out in the world that’s made that door — there’s something quite ugly.

4. Alberto Korda, “Guerrillero Heroico (Che Guevara),” 1960

Alberto Korda, a favored photographer of Fidel Castro, captured this image of a 31-year-old Che Guevara by chance during a funeral in Havana in 1960 to honor the victims of a freighter explosion. Guevara, at the time the president of the National Bank of Cuba, happened to move into Korda’s line of sight while Castro was giving a speech. His expression is one of restrained anger; the Cuban government accused the United States of being responsible for the tragedy, which it denied. Five years later, Guevara resigned from Castro’s cabinet and joined revolutionary causes abroad, including in Congo and Bolivia, where he led guerrillas in a failed coup attempt. Korda’s photo wasn’t widely published until after Guevara’s execution by Bolivian soldiers in 1967, when posters, murals and eventually T-shirts emblazoned with Guevara’s face began to appear around the world. In the original portrait, he is flanked by another man and some palm fronds, but the reproductions are cropped to show just Guevara’s head. Korda’s image made Guevara into something more than a man, or even a famous revolutionary; he became a symbol for revolution itself. — E.I.

Miller: We have two pictures of Che Guevara to consider. Stan, you picked Che following his execution , and Susan, you picked the more famous portrait of him by Alberto Korda. It’s in every college dorm.

Marcoci: It’s in every tattoo parlor.

Douglas: They’re both propaganda images. One is the revolutionary looking to the future, which we’ve seen in everything from Soviet realist paintings to Obama posters. So, in many ways, a cliché, even though it’s had this huge impact. The image of Che dead [which was taken by the Bolivian photographer Freddy Alborta] is both iconic in that it’s like [an Andrea] Mantegna [1431-1506] painting of the dead Christ [“ Lamentation Over the Dead Christ ,” circa 1480], but also as evidence, on the part of the people who killed him, that the guy is dead. It’s just such a weird photograph: the officer on the right who’s poking at Che’s body to prove he’s just a human. Just mortal. And it somehow seemed like the end of the export of revolution from Cuba, which very much shut down after Che’s death.

Meiselas: And then he’s resurrected as a tattoo.

5. Diane Arbus, “Boy With a Straw Hat Waiting to March in a Pro-War Parade, N.Y.C., 1967”

The boy in “Boy With a Straw Hat” doesn’t look like a typical Arbus subject. Wearing a prim collared shirt, bow-tie and boater hat, with one American flag at his side and another, much smaller one twisted into a bow on his lapel, the thin-lipped paradegoer seems like the paragon of anodyne conservatism. He’s nothing like the cross-dressers, carnival entertainers, nudists and others relegated to the margins of society that fascinated Arbus, whose work prompted one of the more protracted debates on the ethics of photography, as her images were so often said to skirt the lines of voyeurism and exploitation. Yet his steady gaze prompts a similar sense of unease in the viewer, as does the small pin on his jacket that reads Bomb Hanoi. “Boy With a Straw Hat” was the cover image of Artforum’s May 1971 issue, published two months before Arbus’s death by suicide at age 48. In 1972, when her posthumous MoMA retrospective drew record crowds, the art critic Hilton Kramer refuted the idea that she was merely capturing her subjects for the sake of spectacle; he argued that she collaborated with the people she photographed, and that that act of participation provided dignity — or at least authenticity — especially for those individuals who are shunned or otherwise invisible. Arbus herself once said that the “best thing is the difference. I get to keep what nobody needs.” — B.E.

Miller: A number of us nominated Diane Arbus photos.

Douglas: [I picked] the sitting room in Levittown [“ Xmas Tree in a Living Room in Levittown, L.I., 1962 ”], which is one of those suburbs created in the postwar period that people could buy [homes in] with their G.I. Bill money, in which Black people couldn’t live. It’s a case of there [being] something outside the image, which is very powerful: The construction of this new suburban reality, while Emmett Till’s being killed.

Marcoci: I chose the “Giant” [“ A Jewish Giant at Home With His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970 .”], because this was one of the first pictures where I was really thinking, “Who is that person? What would it be like to be him?”

Meiselas: One of the things that photographs do is make us emotional. Some of Arbus’s most memorable pictures are the ones that make you feel more than think.

Vellam: I’d vote for “Giant” just because it spawned so many people’s idea of portraiture: Katy Grannan, Deana Lawson, Larry Sultan. Like this idea of going into a place — in her case, middle-class suburbia — that you may not even have spent any time in otherwise. I feel like that became its own genre: There’s so much photography that has come out of her idea of going into people’s homes.

Marcoci: If I were to choose just one Arbus, I’d probably choose “Boy With a Straw Hat”: A portrait of an individual that’s this very interesting collective portrait of America, too. There’s this tension between the innocent face and then those buttons: “God Bless America” and “Bomb Hanoi.”

Shikeith: He’s sort of the archetype for the Proud Boys. You can see that smirk on his face.

Meiselas: There were pictures from the R.N.C. [Republican National Convention] four years ago that looked so much like this.

Miller: Stan and An-My both nominated a very different kind of photograph from the Vietnam War era: Malcolm Browne’s picture of Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation.

6. Malcolm Browne, the Self-Immolation of the Buddhist Monk Thích Quảng Đức in Saigon, 1963

The AP reporter Malcolm Browne was among the only photojournalists on the scene when the monk Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire in 1963 in Saigon as an act of protest against the South Vietnamese government’s persecution of the Buddhist majority. As flames engulfed Quảng Đức, hundreds of monks surrounded him, mourning while he burned. The photo, sent out as soon as possible on a commercial flight to reach the AP’s offices, was published on front pages internationally the following morning. When President John F. Kennedy saw it, he reportedly exclaimed, “Jesus Christ!” and then ordered a review of his administration’s Vietnam policy. (He would later say, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.”) Browne won the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for the photograph, which also contributed to the collapse of support for the South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, who was assassinated in a coup that year. President Kennedy was assassinated just a few weeks later, and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, would escalate the war. Browne’s photograph, which is newly resonant today, enshrined the act of self-immolation as the most extreme form of protest. — Lucy McKeon

Lê: I think it’s one of the most incredible monuments that exists as a photograph. [It documents] an extraordinary act of sacrifice for a cause. These days, you see [some] people protesting, and it’s all about their egos. And here, there’s no ego. It’s one of the few pictures I know that’s so violent and peaceful at the same time.

Douglas: He was there for five minutes, apparently, burning, and just didn’t flinch, didn’t say a word. This is what you do when you have no other recourse, when you feel the suppression is so severe that this is the only way you can get your statement heard.

Meiselas: It makes me think of the Napalm Girl, as well [ Nick Ut’s 1972 image of Kim Phuc Phan Thi , age 9, fleeing a napalm attack in the village of Trảng Bàng]. That moment impacted a generation. The question is, which one mobilized us further?

Lê: The Napalm Girl picture, for me, represents the notion that all Vietnamese are victims of war. I started watching war movies in college, and every time the word “Vietnam” comes up, that is the image that people have in their mind. I think the monk speaks to [something] beyond himself. He’s not a victim.

7. NASA/William A. Anders, “Earthrise,” 1968

On Christmas Eve 1968, aboard Apollo 8 during its pioneering orbit of the moon, William A. Anders photographed the Earth “rising” above the lunar horizon. The picture was the first of its kind — and it was also unplanned. Anders, the youngest of the three astronauts on the spacecraft, had been tasked with taking photographs of the moon’s craters, mountains and other geological features. He spontaneously decided, however, to include Earth in the frame when he noticed how beautiful it was. “Here was this orb looking like a Christmas tree ornament, very fragile,” Anders would recall in a NASA oral history. “And yet it was our home.” His first shot was in black and white. For the next, he switched to color, which emphasized the contrast between the moon’s gray surface and the planet’s blue-green vibrancy. “Earthrise” was the first image most of humanity saw of the planet we live on, a nature photo like none before it and a reminder of how small our world really is, in comparison with the rest of the universe. As Joni Mitchell would sing of the image, on 1976’s “ Refuge of the Roads ”: “And you couldn’t see a city on that marbled bowling ball/Or a forest or a highway/Or me here least of all. …” — E.I.

Lê: “Earthrise” isn’t the first image of the Earth seen from space. There were earlier low-resolution ones in the ’40s , made from unmanned missiles or whatever. There was one made on Apollo 4, in 1967 . But I think this one, taken by a crew member on Apollo 8 the next year with a Hasselblad, is important because it’s humbling: seeing the Earth in relationship to the Moon, and thinking about us not being the only people on this Earth. Perhaps this is when we started thinking about how we should take care of our home.

Miller: Stan, you nominated a later photo, “ Sunset on Mars ” (2005).

Douglas: I’ve always had this knee-jerk response to Apollo being American propaganda somehow, part of the arms race — who’s going to get [to the Moon] first, the U.S. or the Russians? And once the U.S. got there, they lost interest. It wasn’t really about exploration, but dominance. This image on Mars is something quite extraordinary, because in effect, the camera is a prosthesis. It’s both a very artificial one and a human one. We actually extend our vision through it.

8. Ernest C. Withers, “I Am a Man: Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tennessee,” 1968

In the last weeks of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. took part in a protest of Black sanitation workers striking for safer conditions and decent wages in Memphis, Tenn. In a speech, King emphasized the connection between the United States’ civil rights battle and the struggles of poor and disenfranchised people worldwide, a message that resonated with the crowd. Their protest signs bore the phrase “I Am a Man,” a stark acknowledgment of all the ways this most basic fact was disrespected. “We were going to demand to have the same dignity and the same courtesy any other citizen of Memphis has,” one of the participants, James Douglas, recalled in a 1978 documentary titled “I Am a Man.” The defining photo of the strike was taken by the Black photojournalist Ernest C. Withers, a Memphis native who previously shot the trial of Emmett Till’s killers, and also made famous images of the Montgomery bus boycott , the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Withers’s picture became the official record of King’s last major civil rights action. Years later, however, Withers’s own story was revealed to have been more complicated. Like King, the photographer drew the attention of the F.B.I. Unlike King, he became a paid informant. Yet he continued to produce some of the most iconic images of the movement: On April 4, 1968, less than a week after taking this photo, Withers was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, photographing the blood stain at the scene of King’s assassination. — L.M.

Shikeith: I think I first saw this image around the time the Million Man March was happening [in 1995]. I have a greater understanding of manhood [now] and how much of it I want to align with, and how much I don’t. But I understand how vital the need to identify as a man was in that moment.

Meiselas: I love the contrast of “I am a man,” singular, and “I am a collective.” It’s just all there: perfect distance, perfect composition. Whether or not Withers was working for the F.B.I. …

Douglas: Was he?

Meiselas: Yeah.

Douglas: And his role was to just …

Meiselas: Report on his fellow men. They paid him to spy on his colleagues. It’s a dark story. But let’s not go there.

9. Blair Stapp, Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense, 1968

In the summer of 1968, outside of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., where Huey P. Newton stood trial for the murder of a police officer, supporters held up posters of him that instantly became synonymous with the Black Panther Party. The year before, Newton, the party’s co-founder and Minister of Defense, had collaborated with fellow Panther Eldridge Cleaver and the photographer Blair Stapp to stage a portrait of himself in a black leather jacket and a tipped beret, holding a shotgun in one hand and a spear in the other. He’s seated on a rattan peacock chair that recalls chairs woven by inmates in the United States-colonized Philippines decades earlier. Its oval back piece frames Newton’s head like an oversize halo. Two Zulu warrior shields are propped against the wall. Stapp’s portrait and the peacock chair itself have since become an enduring symbol of Black Power. Michelle Obama sat in one for her 1982 prom portrait . Melvin Van Peebles recreated the photograph in his 1995 film “Panther.” The visual artist Sam Durant memorialized Newton in bronze in 2004 , and Henry Taylor painted it in 2007 . After two hung juries, the murder charges against Newton were dropped in 1971. For him, the struggle was about survival — or as he put it, “survival pending revolution.” — B.E.

Shikeith: I was trying to think of images that my grandmothers revered in a way. I think this is one of those images that exists in a lot of Black domestic spaces as a symbol for strength and determination. And it has this royal demeanor that’s been continuously emulated in Black photographic practice, whether amateur or professional.

Marcoci: The beret is almost [like] Che’s.

Shikeith: You can see people replicating this pose on the wicker chair throughout Black portraiture in the ’80s and early ’90s. I’m really interested in photographs that’ve had a long-lasting effect on our daily lives.

10. W. Eugene Smith, “Tomoko in Her Bath,” 1972

In the Magnum photojournalist W. Eugene Smith’s picture of Tomoko Kamimura, 15, she is being bathed by her mother at their home, in Minamata, Japan. Kamimura had been born with a kind of mercury poisoning that would later come to be known as Minamata disease, caused by a chemical factory contaminating the city’s water and food supply for more than 30 years. Smith and his wife, the photographer and activist Aileen M. Smith, lived in Minamata in the early 1970s, taking thousands of photographs to document the toll of the disaster — 1,784 people died after contracting the disease and thousands were left with severe neurological and musculoskeletal disabilities. Images from the series were printed by Life magazine in 1972, and Kamimura’s portrait became, for a time, one of the most famous images in the world. Amid the public outcry, “rumors began to circulate through the neighborhood claiming that we were making money from the publicity,” Kamimura’s father, Yoshio, would later write, “but this was untrue — it had never entered our minds to profit from the photograph of Tomoko. We never dreamed that a photograph like that could be commercial.” The Chisso Corporation, which owned the factory, has paid damages to some 10,000 victims. Kamimura died in 1977, at the age of 21. Smith died the following year. Twenty years later, after a French TV network wanted to use the photograph, Aileen M. Smith transferred control of it to Kamimura’s family. They haven’t allowed the photograph to be reproduced since. — L.M.

Meiselas: Without this documentation by Eugene Smith, I don’t think Minamata and the mercury poisoning would ever have been confronted. So when you do choose to represent a victim, I hope it’s purposeful.

Douglas: I heartily agree. And it’s a beautiful image of a loving relationship between mother and daughter.

Vellam: Smith documented people, but he was also very conscious of what he was doing while he was documenting them. I think he took a very long time after he shot everyone to figure out what he even wanted to show from them.

Meiselas: He believed that they should be better understood.

11. Photo Archive Group, “Photographs From S-21: 1975-79”

Some photographs, taken in the darkest moments of history, end up saying very different things from what their creators intended — like the images that Stalin’s secret police took during the Great Purge, or the ones white spectators took of lynchings in the United States. One of the more extensive photographic records of an authoritarian regime comes from the Khmer Rouge army, which controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and whose genocidal purges of minority groups and political opponents led to the murder of almost a quarter of the country’s population. Before killing most of its victims, the army took their portraits, in part to prove to leaders that the supposed enemies of the state were indeed being executed. Of the nearly 20,000 people sent between 1975 and 1979 to what was known as the S-21 death camp, the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious torture center, only about a dozen survived. In 1994, the American nonprofit organization Photo Archive Group cleaned and cataloged more than 5,000 photographs taken of prisoners before their executions. A selection of the images, known as “Photographs from S-21: 1975-79,” was published as a book called “The Killing Fields” in 1996 and shown at MoMA the following year. Who was the girl pictured here? What had she seen? It’s impossible to know. And yet the regime’s photographic record offers a way into humanizing and remembering the victims of one of the most ruthless atrocities of the 20th century. S-21 is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where a number of the images from “Photographs From S-21: 1975-1979” are on permanent display. — L.M.

Lê: So these pictures were found in an archive in Cambodia [in 1993]. After the Khmer Rouge took over [in 1975], they went on a rampage, killing teachers and anyone who they felt wasn’t one of theirs. The bodies were buried in different locations. But they photographed these people before killing them. There were thousands of these pictures.

Douglas: If you want to make them disappear, why do you document them?

Lê: But that’s the thing. It’s the banality of evil. It’s unconscionable, right? Civilians being just collateral damage in war. Perhaps there are other ways to speak about violence, and I think this [set of photographs] certainly does.

12. Cindy Sherman, “Untitled Film Stills,” 1977-80

Cindy Sherman was 23 when she began making her “Untitled Film Stills,” a series of 70 black-and-white staged self-portraits that explore stereotypes of women in film and mass media. As a student at Buffalo State College, where she originally studied painting, she became fascinated by performers such as Vito Acconci and Chris Burden, artists who put their own bodies center stage. Sherman also liked to dress up as stock characters for parties, purchasing clothes from flea markets and experimenting with cosmetics. In “Untitled Film Stills,” she plays the career girl, ingénue, librarian , mistress, femme fatale and runaway , alternately heartbroken, hung over, daydreaming or determined to escape a predator as though trapped in some film noir. But which film? That feeling of vague recognition was Sherman’s point, as well as that of other artists of the era experimenting with pictures from mass media, who would eventually be called the Pictures Generation, a name based on a 1977 exhibition curated by Douglas Crimp . They wanted viewers to almost recognize the images, so as to heighten the uncanny nature of their work. Sherman initially sold eight-by-ten prints from “Untitled Film Stills” for $50 out of a binder from her desk at her day job as a receptionist at the nonprofit gallery Artists Space in New York. Douglas Eklund, who organized a Pictures Generation exhibition in 2009, noted that the series “never ceases to astonish, as if Sherman knew how to operate all of the machinery of mass-cultural representation with one hand tied behind her back.” Her intuitive grasp of the self-portrait’s theatrical appeal, especially when that self could be manipulated — decades before anyone could have imagined camera filters on an iPhone — has kept “Untitled Film Stills” relevant ever since. — B.E.

Marcoci: There’s something about the “Untitled Film Stills.” It’s this relationship between still and moving images. Cindy Sherman has the capacity to encapsulate, in a single [work], a narrative. She calls on this pantheon of women’s roles from movies that we think we’ve seen, but none of them are based on an actual film still. There’s one [“Untitled Film Still #13,” 1978] where she looks like Brigitte Bardot in a head scarf from Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” (1963), but she’s a librarian. She’s reaching for a book. She makes the Bardot type into an intellectual, which is [an agency] that most male Hollywood filmmakers of the time, or even a filmmaker like Godard, would not have given the real Bardot. She was able to see something about how we engage with mass media and tweak it.

Douglas: I’m not convinced about Sherman. [There’s] an art-world canonization of the work. How important was it? How influential? I don’t think it was that important or influential outside of a very small area.

Marcoci: On the other hand, if you ask people if they know about Sherman, they probably do.

Lê: They do. Many young women find Sherman’s work empowering.

Marcoci: I never thought that we would just be considering photojournalism.

Meiselas: No.

Douglas: I mean, looking at the art world, I would include Ed Ruscha’s “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” [1966].

13. Ed Ruscha, “Every Building on the Sunset Strip,” 1966

As a teenager in Oklahoma City in the 1950s, Ed Ruscha delivered newspapers by bicycle daily along a two-mile route. He dreamed about making a model of all the buildings on his circuit, he later recalled in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “like an architect standing over a table and plotting out a city.” After moving to Los Angeles for art school in 1956, Ruscha became obsessed with the city’s architecture, particularly on the Sunset Strip, that part of Sunset Boulevard that stretches for about two miles, like his old paper route, across West Hollywood. In 1966, Ruscha photographed both sides of the Strip by securing a motorized camera to the bed of a pickup truck. The result was “Every Building on the Sunset Strip,” a nearly 25-foot accordion-fold, self-published artist’s book. Today, Ruscha is most famous for his text-based paintings, many of which reference corporate logos and advertising slogans, for which he is widely celebrated as postwar America’s answer to the Dadaist nonsense movement. But his photography shares with the paintings a repetitive, deadpan humor. In addition to the Sunset Strip, Ruscha photographed swimming pools, gas stations, parking lots and apartments, and collected the images into small books that provoked the ire of critics — and fellow photographers — who deemed the work lacking in style and meaning. (“Only an idiot would take pictures of nothing but the filling stations,” the photographer Jeff Wall once complained.) But what he created was a kind of time travel, a meticulous, obsessive visual cartography of a long-lost Los Angeles. He and his brother, Paul, still make the trip to photograph the street every couple of years. — B.E.

Marcoci: I love [Ed] Ruscha, and I think we’ve barely touched on conceptual photography. Obviously superimportant, but is he really the photographer that did so much for photography through that series?

Meiselas: I know what you mean. Of course, because the photographs came way early, we rediscovered them after he became famous for painting.

Miller: Well, he’s certainly not as famous as a photographer as some people on this list, but I don’t know if we need to get hung up on that.

Douglas: I think “Sunset Strip” was extraordinary. Ruscha produces photographs governed by a hard-core conceptual procedure. In the case of “Every Building on the Sunset Strip,” the procedure is in the title and, in order to fulfill it, he had to make hundreds of stops along a Los Angeles street. But I also thought this was too inside the art world.

Miller: Maybe this is a good time to talk about Nan Goldin.

14. Nan Goldin, “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” 1979-2004

Nan Goldin originally presented “Ballad,” named after a song from Bertolt Brecht’s satirical musical “The Threepenny Opera,” as a series of 35-millimeter slides shown by a carousel projector in bars and nightclubs and backed by an eclectic soundtrack — from Dean Martin to the Velvet Underground. Goldin’s visual diary is itself a bohemian opera of New York’s downtown counterculture, a community freed from convention yet abandoned many times over by society; it documents sex, addiction, beauty, violence, powerful friendship, the AIDS crisis and the joyful struggle to live beyond the limits of the mainstream. Friends were photographed doing the twist at a party or preparing to inject heroin. In “Nan One Month After Being Battered” (1984), a portrait of domestic abuse, the artist’s bloodshot eye meets the lens head-on. Goldin’s “Ballad” has since been credited with inspiring everything from selfie culture to the raw, diaristic aesthetic and saturated color now commonplace across social media and in fine art. Over the years, Goldin would revise and update the series, presenting it with new images and a different soundtrack, and it would become an ubiquitous presence in galleries and museums. But because the work has so thoroughly permeated the culture, it’s easy to overlook just how radical it was when it debuted. In “ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ,” Laura Poitras’s 2022 documentary about Goldin, the photographer describes a resistance to her art in the ’80s, “especially from male artists and gallerists who said ‘This isn’t photography. Nobody photographs their own life.’ It was still a kind of outlier act.” — L.M.

Marcoci: We’re talking about an artist who’s very much engaged with youth culture, with the cultures that transgress gender binaries. Also with the ravages of a generation that takes drugs, that loves, that dies young. “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” is a ballad. It shows this group of people as images set to music.

Meiselas: It was radical, it was very impactful to the photographic medium. But here’s my question: Would we be choosing either Nan [Goldin] or Cindy Sherman if we didn’t know their names?

Marcoci: Did you watch the “Ballad”?

Meiselas: Of course. I watched it in 1985.

Marcoci: How many times?

Meiselas: How many times has she changed it?

Marcoci: But even that I like. You don’t need to choose one picture. It’s interesting for me when photography is not just a moment that’s frozen in time, when it has the capacity to change.

15. Wolfgang Tillmans, “Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christoph on Beach (B/W),” 1993

A slightly different, color image of the same people in “Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christoph on Beach (B/W)” was first published by i-D magazine in 1993 for an unconventional fashion story about camouflage. The German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans staged the scene in Bournemouth, England, where he’d attended art school the previous year, and captured a whorl of bodies in military fatigues, each person clasping another’s arm, thigh or chest, and all wearing camouflage patterns from different countries — a post-Cold War utopia. The black-and-white version was printed on color paper, which accounts for the warmth of its tone. On the beach, Lutz, Alex, Suzanne and Christoph appear as if from a scene in Charles and Ray Eames’s 1977 short film “Powers of Ten,” which zooms out from a sunny picnic into the farthest reaches of the universe. Tillmans’s photograph “seems to model something like chosen family,” says the curator Phil Taylor, who edited a collection of the artist’s interviews. The way Tillmans envisions family in this early portrait — as a tight embrace amid the implied violence of the outside world — is emblematic of the way he would go on to depict men kissing at gay nightclubs or activists at antiwar demonstrations, each a picture of solidarity against the odds. — B.E.

Lê: I think Wolfgang [Tillmans] captured youth culture — in magazines like i-D and The Face — at a time [the early ’90s] when young people were being captured in a different way: It was very clinical and idealized, and he just came out with this very real [take on] youth culture. The pictures were a little more grainy, and I think it [changed] the way young people are seen. My students always bring up his work. I think it’s a way to photograph your family and friends and turn them into real protagonists. And I see that influence as very long-lasting.

Marcoci: What’s interesting in this image is [that] it’s four friends on a beach, dressed in camouflage. Camouflage immediately makes you think of military uniforms, of obedience, of listening to orders. But in the techno culture of these clubs in the 1990s, it had become a symbol of individuality and freedom: the exact opposite of what the uniform means.

Meiselas: This image, if I didn’t know his name, I would’ve just turned the page.

Lê: I think we need a picture that speaks about youth. And I think even though this picture was made in ’93 …

Miller: … That’s still how young people are photographed today.

16. Lee Friedlander, “Boston,” 1986, From the Series “At Work,” 1975-95

Lee Friedlander is best known for photographing America’s social landscape, from mundane street scenes in the Midwest to nudes of Madonna that were taken in the late 1970s. Between 1975 and 1995, he created six series of photographs depicting employees at different types of workplaces, including Rust Belt factories, a telemarketing call center and a New York investment firm. One of these series, commissioned by the M.I.T. Museum and produced between 1985 and 1986, looks at office workers in the Boston area who used desktop computers for their jobs. At the time, this was a fairly new development, but one that Friedlander presciently recognized would come to define not just corporate life but humanity itself. His subjects are often seemingly oblivious — or indifferent — to the presence of the camera. Likewise, his camera often omits the computers themselves, the ostensible subject of his images. Instead, the workers, sitting at brightly lit desks, are pictured from the chest up, their detached expressions familiar to any of us as they sit engrossed in (or bored by) screens just out of frame. With this series Friedlander had tapped into the dark comedy of the mundane. His influence can be seen in a generation of younger photographers who seek to question everyday life — from Alec Soth to LaToya Ruby Frazier — and whose images would mostly be viewed on screens. — E.I.

Marcoci: I love this series.

Douglas: I love it, too, but I put this in out of guilt for not having more art people in here. It’s images of these people just engaged in the world around them.

Meiselas: In autonomous labor. I remember when I first saw this series of white-collar workers in front of machines.

Lê: No one had done that before.

17. LaToya Ruby Frazier, “The Last Cruze,” 2019

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s series “The Last Cruze,” named after the compact car made by General Motors, follows the 2019 closure of an auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that had been open since 1966. Over nine months, Frazier documented the impact one corporation can have on a community, which lost thousands of jobs. The work was first presented as a multimedia installation: More than 60 portraits and video interviews with union workers and their families were mounted to orange metal trusses at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. In the accompanying monograph, Frazier included essays by artists and critics as well as members of the local chapter of the United Auto Workers union. On its cover is this photograph, which she shot from a helicopter, showing a group of workers and their families protesting the plant’s abrupt shuttering and requesting a new product to work on. Other images show Lordstown residents in various states of mourning — wiping away tears or proudly displaying union memorabilia. Born in a Pennsylvania steel manufacturing town, Frazier embedded herself with the Ohio workers, producing one of the most detailed records of the gutting of America’s working class. “‘The Last Cruze’ is a workers’ monument,” she has said. “It is half-holy, half-assembly line.” — L.M.

Marcoci: LaToya Ruby Frazier is a true artist-activist. These workers were losing their pension plans, their health benefits, you name it. It’s a work that includes more than 60 pictures of union workers along with their testimonies, because she also did these interviews with them.

Miller: I think “The Last Cruze” might be the only complete photographic record we have of the impact that corporate decision-making has on a work force. GM skipped town, cut their costs and the people of Lordstown were left holding the bag. We have another picture, nominated by Susan, that also documents labor.

18. Sebastião Salgado, “Serra Pelada Gold Mine, State of Pará, Brazil,” 1986

One of the most striking aspects of Sebastião Salgado’s photographs of an open-air gold mine in Brazil is the scale. Several thousand men — their bodies hunched and fragile — are rendered miniature against the backdrop of a massive pit in the earth. In the photos, most of the miners are climbing into or out of that pit, holding tools or ferrying sacks up and down narrow ladders and steep slopes. In several shots, Salgado chose not to include the horizon within the frame; the viewer can’t see where the workers’ dangerous journey ends. The photographer, who was born in the state of Minas Gerais (which means “general mines”) in Brazil, spent 35 days at Serra Pelada, living alongside the miners while he took these photographs. When they were published in 1987 in The New York Times Magazine, they revealed a late-20th-century gold rush and the appalling conditions facing those at the bottom of it. In the nearly four decades since, Salgado has gone on to capture the burning oil wells in Kuwait, the genocide in Rwanda and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Some critics have labeled him an “aesthete of misery,” using the plight of the poor and disenfranchised to make visually striking pictures. When these images are exhibited in a fine art context, their size is so massive, the sheer aesthetics of the imagery threaten to eclipse the act of documentation. But in a profile in The Guardian this year marking his 80th birthday, Salgado responded, “I came from the third world. When I was born, Brazil was a developing country. The pictures I took, I took from my side, from my world, from where I come from. … The flaw my critics have, I don’t. It’s the feeling of guilt.” — E.I.

Meiselas: The scale of what he presented to us at the time was really quite amazing.

Douglas: It was like, “Holy moly, that’s still going on?”

Meiselas: Exactly.

19. Stuart Franklin, an Unidentified Man Blocking a Column of Tanks in Tiananmen Square, 1989

On June 4, 1989, as a column of tanks rolled into formation on Chang’an Avenue bordering Tiananmen Square, the Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin watched from the sixth-floor balcony of the nearby Beijing Hotel. He was holed up there with several other foreign correspondents, who were all covering the weekslong protests, led by hundreds of thousands of unarmed students, against the Chinese Community Party. The previous night, the People’s Liberation Army had cleared the area with force; that morning, they prevented parents from looking for students lost in the fray, and the soldiers fired live rounds even as medics attempted to rush the injured to safety. (Thousands are thought to have been killed in the protests, although an official death toll has never been released.) Suddenly, a young man in a white shirt and dark pants, holding shopping bags in his hands, approached the first tank. On the video footage, it attempts to maneuver around him. Like a matador taunting a bull, he flings his arms in fury and, when the tank turns back, the man jumps out again. Yet the dramatic photograph Franklin took, with five tanks and a destroyed bus in the frame, draws its power from its stillness, its potential energy. (Four other photographers are known to have captured the same scene, including Jeff Widener, whose tightly framed version for The Associated Press ran on the front page of The Times.) Authoritarian regimes cannot tolerate symbolic images of resistance and, while the Tank Man — whose identity has never been confirmed — became an inspiration for pro-democracy movements across the world, he was snuffed out from official Chinese memory. Today, image searches in China for “Tiananmen Square” only turn up cheerful pictures of a tourist destination. — B.E.

Douglas: Multiple photographers shot this image because they were all in the same corner of a hotel overlooking Tiananmen Square. They couldn’t really shoot anywhere else on the square. The first time I saw this scene, it was a video.

Meiselas: Right, there was a television camera. The stills are very different. And I don’t care whose image it is. I’m thinking about the man in front of the tank and what happens when one man stands up. And I love how this looks alongside Ernest Withers’s “I Am a Man.”

20. Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, “The Day Nobody Died,” 2008

In 2008, the artist duo Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin were embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan during a period that was, at the time, the deadliest week since the war began in 2001. They brought a lightproof box containing a roll of photographic paper, and, occasionally, exposed six-meter segments of the paper to the sun for 20 seconds at a time. They were creating photograms, which, as opposed to conventional war photographs, display the marks of their making but little else. The resulting works — 12 in total — set out “to create a kind of post-mortem of photojournalistic representation of conflict,” as the artists wrote when the work was first exhibited. They made these images on days when a BBC fixer was executed or a suicide attack killed nine Afghan soldiers. But they also made one on the day that the title refers to — a day with no fatalities. In a literal sense, there isn’t anything to see in the images except splashes of light as abstract as a blurry sonogram. When Broomberg and Chanarin arrived in Afghanistan, the war was in its seventh year and, by then, a surfeit of photographs depicting death and violence had long been circulating. There’s hardly consensus on what to leave out when depicting war, but there is some consensus on the need to bear witness. With their photograms, Broomberg and Chanarin found a new, unexpected, but no less emotional way of doing so. — E.I.

Miller: There were a lot of different kinds of images of war from the George W. Bush era. Nadia, you nominated Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s “The Day Nobody Died,” which is very abstract.

Douglas: What is it?

Vellam: They did this project in Afghanistan where they took rolls of photo paper and put them outside, exposing them to the sun or the weather. Whatever would happen while the photo paper was exposed was the work. It’s about a new idea of photography, about it not depicting something specific but creating a mood. And this one was taken, as the title says, on a day nobody died, which is such an interesting and different way to talk about a conflict.

21. Richard Drew, “Falling Man,” 2001

When it was first published by The Associated Press, the photojournalist Richard Drew’s image of a man falling to his death from the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was denounced by many readers as exploitative. Several media outlets published the image once, on Sept. 12 — including The Times, on page A7 — but it then disappeared from circulation, confined to shock websites like rotten.com. There was no shortage of graphic images of 9/11, including footage of the planes flying into the buildings. But Drew’s photo was uniquely unsettling because of its uncomfortable elegance: a single victim, framed by both north and south towers, caught in a fragile stasis before death. The image eventually began a strange afterlife as “one of the most famous photographs in human history,” according to the journalist Tom Junod, who wrote a 2003 essay in Esquire in which he attempts to identify the falling man. He couldn’t — not definitively. No one has. Recalling war photography that valorizes the unknown soldier, “Falling Man” would go on to be one of the inspirations for a novel by Don DeLillo and an opera by Daniel Levy. Long after the dust settled on the former site of the World Trade Center, the photograph of the unnamed man remains, like “an unmarked grave,” in Junod’s words, merely asking that we look at it. — E.I.

Miller: I think “Falling Man” is the defining image from the most violent day in America since the Civil War.

Shikeith: I was in middle school when 9/11 happened. Images from that day seem to seep into you. You carry them for life and they dictate certain fears and anxieties.

Miller: And then there are all the images from what happened in the years to come. The pictures of soldiers torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib military prison are arguably the most famous photographs from the war on terror.

22. Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II, Abu Ghraib Hooded Detainee, 2003

In early 2004, investigations into abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib detention facility had already been reported by news outlets including The New York Times and CNN. But the government had kept all photographs of torture out of view — until leaked images reached CBS. Even then, the news anchor Dan Rather would claim, the network’s executives only granted permission to show them when faced with the threat of a scoop by The New Yorker’s investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. (CBS executives justified holding the photos on various grounds, including the desire to avoid retaliation against American hostages.) The Abu Ghraib photos finally appeared in both outlets later that year. Their subject matter is brutal: men stripped naked and made to form a human pyramid with soldiers grinning behind them; a hooded man standing atop a box, hooked to electrical wires. The fact that American soldiers had recorded these scenes on their personal cameras only made them more disturbing. The photos significantly shifted American public opinion on the war on terror, further demonstrating the power of an image to alter a story. They also speak to a broader shift in news photography, in which everyone — no matter their intentions — is now a potential journalist. — L.M.

Shikeith: Both “Falling Man” and the hooded Iraqi detainee have a hard-core bodily effect on me. I think there was a sort of naïveté to the world I grew up in, just this idea that America is the greatest place on earth. For a moment there, we believed the myth. At least I did. When I started seeing these images, I developed a distrust in a lot of things. It only got worse. I have a very pessimistic outlook, but it sort of begins here, with these images.

23. Carrie Mae Weems, “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried,” 1995-96

Carrie Mae Weems’s “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” is a work of appropriation that brings together 34 photographs, many of them of Black Americans, dating from the mid-19th century to the late 1960s, which collectively form a lesson on the history of racism in America. At the heart of the work are four images of people who were enslaved in South Carolina — some of the earliest known images that exist of America’s original sin — taken by the photographer Joseph T. Zealy and commissioned in 1850 by the Harvard University biologist Louis Agassiz. Originally intended to illustrate Agassiz’s baseless phrenological theories of Black inferiority, the pictures were rescaled and reframed by Weems, who also tinted them blood-red, making explicit the violence that allowed for their creation. Stored in Harvard’s archives for more than a century, Zealy’s images fell into obscurity, only to be rediscovered in 1976. After Weems used them without permission, the school threatened her with a lawsuit. “I think that your suing me would be a really good thing,” she told the university, as she later recalled to the art historian Deborah Willis. “You should, and we should have this conversation in court.” Instead of proceeding with the suit, Harvard acquired the work, further complicating the idea of ownership that Weems investigates. — E.I.

Vellam: We should talk about Carrie [Mae Weems].

Meiselas: We should definitely talk about Carrie. There are two very different options [“ Kitchen Table Series ,” 1990, and “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried.”]

Lê: I chose the “Kitchen Table Series” [in which Weems poses as the matriarch in various domestic scenes she staged in a single room, containing little else but an overhead lamp and a table]. The kitchen table is symbolic — it’s the intimacy of the home. In a way I always felt these pictures were about people being able to be themselves, being open and visible in a way that they maybe can’t in public.

Marcoci: To me, the “Kitchen Table Series” is a true performance for the camera in a way that Cindy’s is in “Untitled Film Stills.” But “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” is an amazing work because it engages with race, with slavery, with colonialism, through an archive. The subjects here were really originally presented as specimens. But what Carrie does is give a voice back to these subjects, whose voices were completely muted. She enlarges the photographs. She tints them blood-red. The whole thing becomes a poem.

Shikeith: This particular work taught me how to use photographs to tell a story. And the fact that [Harvard threatened to sue her] introduces this whole other issue about who gets to tell what stories.

24. Deana Lawson, “Nation,” 2018

The idea for “Nation” came to Deana Lawson in a dream. She was haunted by a story that George Washington’s false teeth were made from the teeth of enslaved people . For months, she kept an image of Washington’s dentures — held in Mount Vernon’s collection — on the wall of her bedroom. Lawson dreamed about a person wearing a mouth guard and wondered if she might forge a connection between the majesty of gold — the jewelry of hip-hop and the regalia of the Ashanti Kingdom — and the fact that the first president of the United States could only speak the lofty words of liberty through teeth that once belonged to the oppressed. Lawson is known for portraits she stages in homes and other intimate spaces, often decorated with a large array of objects: family pictures, children’s toys, a Michael Jackson poster. In her images, Black men and women, their skin captured in color with meticulous attention to shade and tone, appear not as documentary subjects but as vessels. “Her people seem to occupy a higher plane, a kingdom of restored glory,” the novelist Zadie Smith has written of Lawson’s photography. At the photo shoot for “Nation,” Lawson offered three hip-hop artists a selection of jewelry and a mouth guard, typically worn during dental procedures, painted gold. “Someone said that I’m ruthless when it comes to what I want,” Lawson says in an interview in her self-titled 2018 monograph. “I have an image in mind that … burns so deeply that I have to make it, and I don’t care what people are going to think.” “Nation” presents an endless series of questions about Black lineage, going back centuries before the nation’s founding. Lawson later printed the picture of Washington’s teeth on a card and slipped it into the edge of the work’s golden frame. — B.E.

Miller: Deana Lawson seems to be doing something similar to Weems in “Nation.”

Marcoci: I think that’s an amazing image. It’s actually a collage, with the picture of George Washington’s dentures tucked into the top right corner. She’s said photography has the power to make history and the present speak to each other.

25. Carlijn Jacobs, “Renaissance,” 2022

On July 29, 2022, when Beyoncé released “Renaissance,” the first of what she’s envisioned as a three-act magnum opus (act two, “Cowboy Carter,” was released this March), the public was exhausted after two and a half years of pandemic restrictions and unprecedented change to their daily routines. They were stir-crazy and impatient for the dance floor. Beyoncé embraced the sounds of house music pioneered by Black and queer D.J.s, as well as the subversive, high-gloss styling of ballroom culture. The singer appears on the album’s cover in a Giannina Azar-designed silver rope dress, sitting astride a horse covered in mirrors. The image was taken by Carlijn Jacobs, a Dutch fashion photographer interested in the art of masquerade and maximalist glamour, and alludes to both rodeo and royalty. It also conjures a range of artistic references, including Kehinde Wiley’s painting “ Equestrian Portrait of Isabella of Bourbon ” (2016); Rose Hartman’s snapshots of Bianca Jagger on a white horse at Studio 54 in 1977; and John Collier’s 1890s painting of Lady Godiva, the 11th-century Englishwoman said to have rode her horse naked through the streets as a form of protest. — B.E.

Vellam: Does anybody else feel like we’re missing a pop-culture celebrity moment? If we’re talking about images that go everywhere, and that people who live in the middle of the country all are going to look at, I don’t feel we have that.

Douglas: I think it’s important to include the idea of celebrity culture in photography. I’m not quite sure what that would be.

Lê: There’s the [2017] picture of Beyoncé pregnant with all the flowers .

Miller: Initially, Shikeith had also picked Beyoncé from the album cover of “Dangerously in Love” (2003).

Marcoci: But sorry, why don’t we then just choose a [Richard] Avedon of a celebrity?

Vellam: Marilyn Monroe [from 1957]. But don’t we feel like we have plenty of photographs from the past? Don’t we want to think about what celebrity is now?

Miller: What’s the iconic pop culture image from the last five years?

Douglas: Is there a Kardashian image?

Vellam: I can’t, because I hate them so much. But yes, you want the thing of [Kim Kardashian] when she broke the internet with her butt [an image that ran on the cover of Paper magazine in 2014].

Douglas: I’m going back to Beyoncé, because [you want] an image of a celebrity who’s not a person but an image. She’s like a simulacrum somehow.

Vellam: With her “Renaissance” cover, suddenly she was plastered everywhere. It was all over the city.

Douglas: I’d buy that.

Shikeith: I think it’s very important that she released this album and highlighted Black queer contributions to music in the culture because, very frequently, those same contributions are erased or attributed to someone else. Especially in pop culture.

Marcoci: Can you hold it up on your phone?

Vellam: Yeah. I listen to it all the time.

Top: Gordon Parks, “Department Store, Mobile, Alabama” (1956) © the Gordon Parks Foundation; NASA/William A. Anders, “Earthrise” (1968); Alberto Korda, “Guerrillero Heroico (Che Guevara)” (1960) © Alberto Korda, courtesy of the Alberto Korda Estate; Stuart Franklin, an unidentified man blocking a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square (1989) © Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos; Deana Lawson, “Nation” (2018) © Deana Lawson, courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery; LaToya Ruby Frazier, “United Auto Workers and Their Families Holding up ‘Drive It Home’ Campaign Signs Outside UAW Local 1112 Reuther Scandy Alli Union Hall, Lordstown, OH, 2019,” from the series “The Last Cruze” (2019) © LaToya Ruby Frazier, courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery

M.H. Miller is a features director for T Magazine. More about M.H. Miller

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