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• Population Growth Essay

Essay on Population Growth

One of the major problems the world is facing is the problem of the exponential growth of the population. This problem is the greatest one. Most countries in the world are showing a steep rise in population figures. The world’s resources are limited and so they cannot support a population beyond a certain limit. There has been news about the scarcity of food grains and the paucity of jobs mounting across the world. The number of human beings is multiplying at a steady rate. The world population has already crossed the six billion mark and it is expected to double in the next three or four decades. 

If the population continues to grow at this rate then the economy of the overpopulated countries will be unable to cope up with the growth of the population. Every attempt to bring peace, comfort and welfare to everybody’s door will be thwarted and misery will become prominent if the population is not kept within proper limits. Except for a few countries, all countries are facing a population boom. Currently, the largest populated country in the world is China and India is the second-largest populated country. India represents 17% of the world’s population. Other countries like Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia and some countries of Europe are threatened to be burst into the seams by population explosion.

Causes of Population Growth

The major cause of population growth is the decrease in death rate and rise in the life span of the average individual. Earlier, there was a balance between the birth and death rate due to limited medical facilities, people dying in wars, and other calamities. The rapid spread of education has made people health conscious. People have become aware of the basic causes of diseases and simple remedies for them.

Illiteracy is another cause of an increase in population. Low literacy rate leads to traditional, superstitious, and ignorant people. 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 the progress of any country.

The superstitious people mainly from rural places think that having a male child would give them prosperity and so there is considerable pressure on the parents to produce children till a male child is born. This leads to population growth in underdeveloped countries like India, Bangladesh. 

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 leads to a rise in the population density in the countries. 

Religion sentiment is another cause of the population explosion. Some orthodox communities believe that any mandate or statutory method of prohibition is sacrilegious. 

Impact Due to Population 

The growth of the population has a major impact on the living standards of people. Overpopulation across the world may create more demand for freshwater supply and this has become a major issue because Earth has only 3% of freshwater. 

The natural resources of Earth are getting depleted because of the exponential growth of the population. These resources cannot be replenished so easily. If there is no check on the growth of population then there will be a day in the next few years when these natural resources will run out completely. 

There is a huge impact on the climatic conditions because of the growth of the population. Human activities are responsible for changing global temperature. 

Impact of Overpopulation on Earth’s Environment

The Earth's current population is almost 7.6 billion people, and it is expanding. It is expected to surpass 8 billion people by 2025, 9 billion by 2040, and 11 billion by 2100. The population is quickly increasing, far surpassing our planet's ability to maintain it, given existing habits.

Overpopulation is linked to a variety of detrimental environmental and economic consequences, including over-farming, deforestation, and water pollution, as well as eutrophication and global warming. Although many incredible things are being done to increase human sustainability on our planet, the problem of too many people has made long-term solutions more difficult to come across.

Overpopulation is mostly due to trends that began with a rise in birth rates in the mid-twentieth century. Migration can also result in overcrowding in certain areas. Surprisingly, an area's overcrowding may arise without a net increase in population. It can happen when a population with an export-oriented economy outgrows its carrying capacity and migratory patterns remain stable. "Demographic entrapment" has been coined to describe this situation.

Some Major Effects of the High Population are as Follows

The rapid growth of the population has caused major effects on our planet. 

The rapidly growing population in the world has led to the problem of food scarcity and heavy pressure on land resources. 

Generating employment opportunities in vastly populated countries is very difficult. 

The development of infrastructural facilities is not able to cope up with the pace of a 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.

There will be a large proportion of unproductive consumers due to overpopulation. 

Economic development is bound to be slower in developing countries in which the population is growing at a very fast rate. This also leads to low capital formation. Overpopulation makes it difficult to implement policies. 

When there is rapid growth in a country then the government of that country is required to provide the minimum facilities for the people for their comfortable living. Hence, it has to increase housing, education, public health, communication and other facilities that will increase the cost of the social overheads.

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

Preventive Measures

To tackle this problem, the government of developing countries 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. Awareness about the use of contraceptive pills and family planning methods should be generated. 

The health care centres in developing and under-developed countries should help the poor people with the free distribution of contraceptives and encourage the control of the number of children. 

The governments of developing countries 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. 

Education plays a major role in controlling the population. People from developing countries should be educated so that they understand the implications of overpopulation.

Short Summarised Points On Population Growth

Based on the number of deaths and births, population growth might be positive or negative. 

If a country's birth rate outnumbers its death rate, the population grows, whereas more ends result in a drop.

There are 7.7 billion people on the earth, and India, with 1.3 billion people, is the second-most populous country after China.

Mumbai, the Bollywood capital, is India's most populous city, with a population of 12 billion people. Delhi, India's most populous city, comes in second with 11 billion inhabitants.

The advancement of knowledge in science, medicine, and technology has resulted in lower mortality and higher fertility, resulting in population rise.

Factors contributing to India's population expansion, such as mortality and fertility rates, child marriage, a lack of family planning, polygamy marriage, and so on, have wreaked havoc on the ecosystem.

Industrialization, deforestation, urbanisation, and unemployment have all been exacerbated by population expansion. These causes degrade our environment and contribute to societal health issues.

Pollution, global warming, climate change, natural catastrophes, and, most importantly, unemployment are all caused by the population.

To keep population increase under control, individuals must have access to education and be aware of the dangers of overpopulation.

The government must raise public awareness about illiteracy and educate individuals about the need for birth control and family planning.

Overpopulation may lead to many issues like depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution and degradation and loss of surroundings.  All countries must take immediate steps to control and manage human population growth.

FAQs on Population Growth Essay

1. What Do You Mean By Population Growth and How is it a Threat to the World?

Population growth refers to the rapid increase in the number of people in an area. It is a threat to the world because the world’s resources are limited and it cannot support a population beyond a certain limit.

2. What are the factors of Population Exponential Growth?

The factors for the exponential growth of the population are illegal migration from other countries, illiteracy, lack of awareness of contraceptive methods, poverty, lack of basic amenities, religious sentiments and superstitions. 

3. What steps should India take to reign in population growth?

Family planning and welfare must be made more widely known by the Indian government. Women and girls should be given more power. Free contraceptives should be distributed and people should be educated at health care centres. In schools and colleges, sex education should be required. Some more points to ponder are given below:

1. Social Actions

The minimum age for marriage is 18 years old.

Increasing women's status

Adoption of Social Security and the Spread of Education

2. Economic Interventions

Increased job opportunities

Providing financial incentives

3. Additional Measures

Medical Services

Legislative Initiatives

Recreational Resources

Increasing public awareness

4. What Impact Does Overpopulation Have on Our Planet?

Overpopulation is linked to a variety of detrimental environmental and economic consequences, including over-farming, deforestation, and water pollution, as well as eutrophication and global warming. Although many incredible things are being done to increase human sustainability on our planet, the problem of too many people has made long-term solutions more difficult to come across. Because of the exponential rise of the human population, the Earth's natural resources are depleting. Overpopulation has a significant impact on climatic conditions. The fluctuating global temperature is due to human activity.

5. What are the impacts on the population?

The influence of population expansion on people's living conditions is significant. Overpopulation around the world may increase demand for freshwater, which has become a big issue given that the Earth only possesses 3% freshwater. Because of the exponential rise of the human population, the Earth's natural resources are depleting. These materials are not easily replenished. If population growth is not slowed, these natural resources will run out altogether in the next several years. The population explosion has had a significant impact on climatic conditions. The fluctuating global temperature is due to global warming and needs to be regulated immediately as glaciers have already started melting and global temperature is rising at an alarming rate.

Understanding Global Change

Discover why the climate and environment changes, your place in the Earth system, and paths to a resilient future.

Population growth

Population growth is the increase in the number of humans on Earth. For most of human history our population size was relatively stable. But with innovation and industrialization, energy, food , water , and medical care became more available and reliable. Consequently, global human population rapidly increased, and continues to do so, with dramatic impacts on global climate and ecosystems. We will need technological and social innovation to help us support the world’s population as we adapt to and mitigate climate and environmental changes.

World human population growth from 10,000 BC to 2019 AD. Data from: The United Nations

Human population growth impacts the Earth system in a variety of ways, including:

• Increasing the extraction of resources from the environment. These resources include fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal), minerals, trees , water , and wildlife , especially in the oceans. The process of removing resources, in turn, often releases pollutants and waste that reduce air and water quality , and harm the health of humans and other species.
• Increasing the burning of fossil fuels for energy to generate electricity, and to power transportation (for example, cars and planes) and industrial processes.
• Increase in freshwater use for drinking, agriculture , recreation, and industrial processes. Freshwater is extracted from lakes, rivers, the ground, and man-made reservoirs.
• Increasing ecological impacts on environments. Forests and other habitats are disturbed or destroyed to construct urban areas including the construction of homes, businesses, and roads to accommodate growing populations. Additionally, as populations increase, more land is used for agricultural activities to grow crops and support livestock. This, in turn, can decrease species populations , geographic ranges , biodiversity , and alter interactions among organisms.
• Increasing fishing and hunting , which reduces species populations of the exploited species. Fishing and hunting can also indirectly increase numbers of species that are not fished or hunted if more resources become available for the species that remain in the ecosystem.
• Increasing the transport of invasive species , either intentionally or by accident, as people travel and import and export supplies. Urbanization also creates disturbed environments where invasive species often thrive and outcompete native species. For example, many invasive plant species thrive along strips of land next to roads and highways.
• The transmission of diseases . Humans living in densely populated areas can rapidly spread diseases within and among populations. Additionally, because transportation has become easier and more frequent, diseases can spread quickly to new regions.

Can you think of additional cause and effect relationships between human population growth and other parts of the Earth system?

Visit the burning of fossil fuels , agricultural activities , and urbanization pages to learn more about how processes and phenomena related to the size and distribution of human populations affect global climate and ecosystems.

Investigate

Learn more in these real-world examples, and challenge yourself to  construct a model  that explains the Earth system relationships.

• The Ecology of Human Populations: Thomas Malthus
• A Pleistocene Puzzle: Extinction in South America

Links to Learn More

• United Nations World Population Maps
• Scientific American: Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?

Overpopulation: Cause and Effect

Conversations about overpopulation can quickly become controversial because they beg the question: Who exactly is the cause of the problem and what, if anything, should be done about it? Many population experts worry discussions around overpopulation will be abused by small-minded people to suggest some are the “right people” to be on the planet (like themselves), and some people are “the wrong people” (usually people in poverty, people of color, foreigners, and so on—you get the drift). But there are no “right” or “wrong” people on the planet, and discussing the problems of global overpopulation can never be an excuse, or in any way provide a platform, for having that type of conversation.

Each human being has a legitimate claim on a sufficient and fair amount of Earth’s resources. But with a population approaching 8 billion, even if everyone adopted a relatively low material standard of living like the one currently found in Papua New Guinea , it would still push Earth to its ecological breaking point. Unfortunately, the “average person” on Earth consumes at a rate over 50% above a sustainable level. Incredibly, the average person in the United States uses almost five times more than the sustainable yield of the planet.

When we use the term “overpopulation,” we specifically mean a situation in which the Earth cannot regenerate the resources used by the world’s population each year. Experts say this has been the case every year since 1970, with each successive year becoming more and more damaging. To help temper this wildly unsustainable situation, we need to understand what’s contributing to overpopulation and overconsumption and how these trends are affecting everything from climate change to sociopolitical unrest.

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The causes of overpopulation.

Today the Earth is home to more than 7.8 billion people . By 2100 the population is on track to hit 10.8 billion , according to the United Nations — and that’s assuming steady fertility declines in many countries. Interestingly, if extra progress is made in women’s reproductive self-determination, and fertility falls more than the United Nations assumes is likely, the population in 2100 might be a relatively smaller 7.3 billion.

For now, the world’s population is still increasing in huge annual increments (about 80 million per year), and our supply of vital non-renewable resources are being exhausted. Many factors contribute to these unsustainable trends , including falling mortality rates, underutilized contraception, and a lack of education for girls.

Falling Mortality Rate

The primary (and perhaps most obvious) cause of population growth is an imbalance between births and deaths. The infant mortality rate has decreased globally, with 4.1 million infant deaths in 2017 compared to 8.8 million in 1990, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is welcome public health news, of course.

At the same time, lifespans are increasing around the world. Those of us who are alive today will likely live much longer than most of our ancestors. Global average life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900 , thanks to advancements in medicine, technology, and general hygiene. Falling mortality rates are certainly nothing to complain about either, but widespread longevity does contribute to the mathematics of increasing population numbers.

Underutilized Contraception 

The global fertility rate has fallen steadily over the years, down from an average of 5 children per woman in 1950 to 2.4 children per woman today, according to the UN Population Division . Along with that promising trend, contraceptive use has slowly but steadily increased globally, rising from 54% in 1990 to 57.4% in 2015. Yet, on the whole, contraceptive use is still underutilized. For example, according to the WHO, an estimated 214 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using modern contraceptives.

These women aren’t using contraceptives for a variety of reasons, including social norms or religious beliefs that discourage birth control, misconceptions about adverse side effects, and a lack of agency for women to make decisions around sex and family planning. An estimated 44% of pregnancies were unintended worldwide between 2010-2014. Getting more women the access and agency to utilize family planning methods could go a long way in flattening the population curve.

Lack of Female Education    

Although female access to education has increased over the years, the gender gap remains. Roughly 130 million girls worldwide are out of school currently, and an estimated 15 million girls of primary school age will never   learn to read and write, compared with 10 million boys.

Increasing and encouraging education among women and girls can have a number of positive ripple effects, including delayed childbearing , healthier children, and an increase in workforce participation. Plenty of evidence suggests a negative correlation between female education and fertility rates.

If increased female education can delay or decrease fertility and provide girls with opportunities beyond an early marriage, it could also help to mitigate current population trends. 

The Effects of Overpopulation

It is only logical that an increase in the world’s population will cause additional strains on resources. More people means an increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and more. And all that consumption contributes to ecological degradation, increased conflicts, and a higher risk of large-scale disasters like pandemics.  

Ecological Degradation 

An increase in population will inevitably create pressures leading to more deforestation, decreased biodiversity, and spikes in pollution and emissions, which will exacerbate climate change . Ultimately, unless we take action to help minimize further population growth heading into the remainder of this century, many scientists believe the additional stress on the planet will lead to ecological disruption and collapse so severe it threatens the viability of life on Earth as we know it. 

Each spike in the global population has a measurable impact on the planet’s health. According to estimates in a study by Wynes and Nicholas (2017) , a family having one fewer child could reduce emissions by 58.6 tonnes CO2-equivalent per year in developed countries.

Increased Conflicts 

The scarcity brought about by environmental disruption and overpopulation has the potential to trigger an increase in violence and political unrest. We’re already seeing wars fought over water, land, and energy resources in the Middle East and other regions, and the turmoil is likely to increase as the global population grows even larger.

Higher Risk of Disasters and Pandemics 

Many of the recent novel pathogens that have devastated humans around the world, including COVID-19, Zika virus, Ebola, and West Nile virus, originated in animals or insects before passing to humans. Part of the reason the world is entering “ a period of increased outbreak activity ” is because humans are destroying wildlife habitats and coming into contact with wild animals on a more regular basis. Now that we’re in the midst of a pandemic, it has become clear how difficult it is to social distance in a world occupied by nearly 8 billion people.   

Discover the real causes and effects of overpopulation

What can be done about overpopulation.

When addressing overpopulation, it’s crucial to take an approach of providing empowerment while mobilizing against anybody advocating for the use of coercion or violence to solve our problems. The combined efforts of spreading knowledge about family planning, increasing agency among women , and debunking widely held myths about contraception will measurably change the trajectory of the world’s population.

As we carry out our work at Population Media Center (PMC), we see first-hand that spreading awareness about family planning methods and the ecological and economic benefits of having smaller families can change reproductive behavior. For example, listeners of our Burundian radio show Agashi (“Hey! Look Again!”) were 1.7 times more likely than non-listeners to confirm that they were willing to negotiate condom use with a sexual partner and 1.8 times more likely than non-listeners to say that they generally approve of family planning for limiting the number of children.

At PMC we harness the power of storytelling to empower listeners to live healthier and more prosperous lives, which in turn contributes to stabilizing the global population so that people can live sustainably with the world’s renewable resources. Discover how PMC is taking action against overpopulation today!

We’re Focused on Making an Impact. Learn More About Our Work.

Global sustainability.

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How Is Population Growth Responsible for the Growing Problem of Water Scarcity

What lies ahead after the world’s population reaches 8 billion , how does overpopulation affect the economy.

The Growth of World Population: Analysis of the Problems and Recommendations for Research and Training (1963)

Chapter: world population problems, world population problems, the growth of world population.

The population of the world, now somewhat in excess of three billion persons, is growing at about two per cent a year, or faster than at any other period in man’s history. While there has been a steady increase of population growth during the past two or three centuries, it has been especially rapid during the past 20 years. To appreciate the pace of population growth we should recall that world population doubled in about 1,700 years from the time of Christ until the middle of the 17th century; it doubled again in about 200 years, doubled again in less than 100, and, if the current rate of population increase were to remain constant, would double every 35 years. Moreover, this rate is still increasing.

To be sure, the rate of increase cannot continue to grow much further. Even if the death rate were to fall to zero, at the present level of human reproduction the growth rate would not be much in excess of three and one-half per cent per year, and the time required for world population to double would not fall much below 20 years.

Although the current two per cent a year does not sound like an extraordinary rate of increase, a few simple calculations demonstrate that such a rate of increase in human population could not possibly continue for more than a few hundred years. Had this rate existed from the time of Christ to now, the world population would have increased in this period by a factor of about 7×10 16 ; in other words, there would be about 20 million individuals in place of each

person now alive, or 100 people to each square foot. If the present world population should continue to increase at its present rate of two per cent per year, then, within two centuries, there will be more than 150 billion people. Calculations of this sort demonstrate without question not only that the current continued increase in the rate of population growth must cease but also that this rate must decline again. There can be no doubt concerning this long-term prognosis: Either the birth rate of the world must come down or the death rate must go back up.

POPULATION GROWTH IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD

The rates of population growth are not the same, of course, in all parts of the world. Among the industrialized countries, Japan and most of the countries of Europe are now growing relatively slowly—doubling their populations in 50 to 100 years. Another group of industrialized countries—the United States, the Soviet Union, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina—are doubling their populations in 30 to 40 years, approximately the world average. The pre-industrial, low-income, and less-developed areas of the world, with two thirds of the world’s population—including Asia (except Japan and the Asiatic part of the Soviet Union), the southwestern Pacific islands (principally the Philippines and Indonesia), Africa (with the exception of European minorities), the Caribbean Islands, and Latin America (with the exception of Argentina and Uruguay)—are growing at rates ranging from moderate to very fast. Annual growth rates in all these areas range from one and one-half to three and one-half per cent, doubling in 20 to 40 years.

The rates of population growth of the various countries of the world are, with few exceptions, simply the differences between their birth rates and death rates. International migration is a negligible factor in rates of growth today. Thus, one can understand the varying rates of population growth of different parts of the world by understanding what underlies their respective birth and death rates.

THE REDUCTION OF FERTILITY AND MORTALITY IN WESTERN EUROPE SINCE 1800

A brief, over-simplified history of the course of birth and death rates in western Europe since about 1800 not only provides a frame of reference for understanding the current birth and death rates in Europe, but also casts some light on the present situation and prospects in other parts of the world. A simplified picture of the population history of a typical western European country is shown in

Figure 1 . Schematic presentation of birth and death rates in western Europe after 1800. (The time span varies roughly from 75 to 150 years.)

Figure 1 . The jagged interval in the early death rate and the recent birth rate is intended to indicate that all the rates are subject to substantial annual variation. The birth rate in 1800 was about 35 per 1,000 population and the average number of children ever born to women reaching age 45 was about five. The death rate in 1800 averaged 25 to 30 per 1,000 population although, as indicated, it was subject to variation because of episodic plagues, epidemics, and crop failures. The average expectation of life at birth was 35 years or less. The current birth rate in western European countries is 14 to 20 per 1,000 population with an average of two to three children born to a woman by the end of childbearing. The death rate is 7 to 11 per 1,000 population per year, and the expectation of life at birth is about 70 years. The death rate declined, starting in the late 18th or early 19th century, partly because of better transport and communication, wider markets, and greater productivity, but more directly because of the development of sanitation and, later, modern medicine. These developments, part of the changes in the whole complex of modern civilization, involved scientific and technological advances in many areas, specifically in public health, medicine, agriculture, and industry. The immediate cause of the decline in the birth rate was the increased deliberate control of fertility within marriage. The only important exception to this statement relates to Ireland, where the decline in the birth rate was brought about by an increase of several years in the age at marriage combined with an increase of 10 to 15 per cent in the proportion of people remaining single. The average age at marriage rose to 28 and more than a fourth of Irish women remained unmarried at age 45. In other countries, however, such social changes have had either insignificant or favorable effects on the birth rate. In these countries—England, Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France—the birth rate went down because of the practice of contraception among married couples. It is certain that there was no decline in the reproductive capacity; in fact, with improved health, the contrary is likely.

Only a minor fraction of the decline in western European fertility can be ascribed to the invention of modern techniques of contraception. In the first place, very substantial declines in some European countries antedated the invention and mass manufacture of contraceptive devices. Second, we know from surveys that as recently as just

before World War II more than half of the couples in Great Britain practicing birth control were practicing withdrawal, or coitus interruptus. There is similar direct evidence for other European countries.

In this instance, the decline in fertility was not the result of technical innovations in contraception, but of the decision of married couples to resort to folk methods known for centuries. Thus we must explain the decline in the western European birth rates in terms of why people were willing to modify their sexual behavior in order to have fewer children. Such changes in attitude were doubtless a part of a whole set of profound social and economic changes that accompanied the industrialization and modernization of western Europe. Among the factors underlying this particular change in attitude was a change in the economic consequences of childbearing. In a pre-industrial, agrarian society children start helping with chores at an early age; they do not remain in a dependent status during a long period of education. They provide the principal form of support for the parents in their old age, and, with high mortality, many children must be born to ensure that some will survive to take care of their parents. On the other hand, in an urban, industrialized society, children are less of an economic asset and more of an economic burden.

Among the social factors that might account for the change in attitude is the decline in the importance of the family as an economic unit that has accompanied the industrialization and modernization of Europe. In an industrialized economy, the family is no longer the unit of production and individuals come to be judged by what they do rather than who they are. Children leave home to seek jobs and parents no longer count on support by their children in their old age. As this kind of modernization continues, public education, which is essential to the production of a literate labor force, is extended to women, and thus the traditional subordinate role of women is modified. Since the burden of child care falls primarily on women, their rise in status is probably an important element in the development of an attitude favoring the deliberate limitation of family size. Finally, the social and economic changes characteristic of industrialization and modernization of a country are accompanied by and reinforce a rise of secularism, pragmatism, and rationalism in place of custom and tradition. Since modernization of a nation involves extension of deliberate human control over an increasing range of the environment,

it is not surprising that people living in an economy undergoing industrialization should extend the notion of deliberate and rational control to the question of whether or not birth should result from their sexual activities.

As the simplified representation in Figure 1 indicates, the birth rate in western Europe usually began its descent after the death rate had already fallen substantially. (France is a partial exception. The decline in French births began late in the 18th century and the downward courses of the birth and death rates during the 19th century were more or less parallel.) In general, the death rate appears to be affected more immediately and automatically by industrialization. One may surmise that the birth rate responds more slowly because its reduction requires changes in more deeply seated customs. There is in most societies a consensus in favor of improving health and reducing the incidence of premature death. There is no such consensus for changes in attitudes and behavior needed to reduce the birth rate.

DECLINING FERTILITY AND MORTALITY IN OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED AREAS

The pattern of declining mortality and fertility that we have described for western Europe fits not only the western European countries upon which it is based but also, with suitable adjustment in the initial birth and death rates and in the time scale, eastern and southern Europe (with the exception of Albania), the Soviet Union, Japan, the United States, Australia, Canada, Argentina, and New Zealand. In short, every country that has changed from a predominantly rural agrarian society to a predominantly industrial urban society and has extended public education to near-universality, at least at the primary school level, has had a major reduction in birth and death rates of the sort depicted in Figure 1 .

The jagged line describing the variable current birth rate represents in some instances—notably the United States—a major recovery in the birth rate from its low point. It must be remembered, however, that this recovery has not been caused by a reversion to uncontrolled family size. In the United States, for example, one can scarcely imagine that married couples have forgotten how to employ the contraceptive

techniques that reduced the birth rates to a level of mere replacement just before World War II. We know, in fact, that more couples are skilled in the use of contraception today than ever before. (Nevertheless, effective methods of controlling family size are still unknown and unused by many couples even in the United States.) The recent increase in the birth rate has been the result largely of earlier and more nearly universal marriage, the virtual disappearance of childless and one-child families, and a voluntary choice of two, three, or four children by a vast majority of American couples. There has been no general return to the very large family of pre-industrial times, although some segments of our society still produce many unwanted children.

POPULATION TRENDS IN LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

We turn now to a comparison of the present situation in the less-developed areas with the demographic circumstances in western Europe prior to the industrial revolution. Figure 2 presents the trends of birth and death rates in the less-developed areas in a rough schematic way similar to that employed in Figure 1 . There are several important differences between the circumstances in today’s less-developed areas and those in pre-industrial Europe. Note first that the birth rate in the less-developed areas is higher than it was in pre-industrial western Europe. This difference results from the fact that in many less-developed countries almost all women at age 35 have married, and at an average age substantially less than in 18th-century Europe. Second, many of the less-developed areas of the world today are much more densely populated than was western Europe at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Moreover, there are few remaining areas comparable to North and South America into which a growing population could move and which could provide rapidly expanding markets. Finally, and most significantly, the death rate in the less-developed areas is dropping very rapidly—a decline that looks almost vertical compared to the gradual decline in western Europe—and without regard to economic change.

The precipitous decline in the death rate that is occurring in the low-income countries of the world is a consequence of the development and application of low-cost public health techniques. Unlike

Figure 2 . Schematic presentation of birth and death rates in less-developed countries, mid-20th century. (The steep drop in the death rate from approximately 35 per thousand began at times varying roughly between 1940 and 1960 from country to country.)

the countries of western Europe, the less-developed areas have not had to wait for the slow gradual development of medical science, nor have they had to await the possibly more rapid but still difficult process of constructing major sanitary engineering works and the build-up of a large inventory of expensive hospitals, public health

services, and highly trained doctors. Instead, the less-developed areas have been able to import low-cost measures of controlling disease, measures developed for the most part in the highly industrialized countries. The use of residual insecticides to provide effective protection against malaria at a cost of no more than 25 cents per capita per annum is an outstanding example. Other innovations include antibiotics and chemotherapy, and low-cost ways of providing safe water supplies and adequate environmental sanitation in villages that in most other ways remain relatively untouched by modernization. The death rate in Ceylon was cut in half in less than a decade, and declines approaching this in rapidity are almost commonplace.

The result of a precipitous decline in mortality while the birth rate remains essentially unchanged is, of course, a very rapid acceleration in population growth, reaching rates of three to three and one-half per cent. Mexico’s population, for example, has grown in recent years at a rate of approximately three and one-half per cent a year. This extreme rate is undoubtedly due to temporary factors and would stabilize at not more than three per cent. But even at three per cent per year, two centuries would see the population of Mexico grow to about 13.5 billion people. Two centuries is a long time, however. Might we not expect that long before 200 years had passed the population of Mexico would have responded to modernization, as did the populations of western Europe, by reducing the birth rate? A positive answer might suggest that organized educational efforts to reduce the birth rate are not necessary. But there is a more immediate problem demanding solution in much less than two centuries: Is the current demographic situation in the less-developed countries impeding the process of modernization itself? If so, a course of action that would directly accelerate the decline in fertility becomes an important part of the whole development effort which is directed toward improving the quality of each individual’s life.

POPULATION TRENDS AND THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF PRE-INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES

The combination of high birth rates and low or rapidly declining death rates now found in the less-developed countries implies two different characteristics of the population that have important impli-

cations for the pace of their economic development. One important characteristic is rapid growth, which is the immediate consequence of the large and often growing difference between birth and death rates; the other is the heavy burden of child dependency which results from a high birth rate whether death rates are high or low. A reduced death rate has only a slight effect on the proportion of children in the population, and this effect is in a rather surprising direction. The kinds of mortality reduction that have actually occurred in the world have the effect, if fertility remains unchanged, of reducing rather than increasing the average age of the population.

Mortality reduction produces this effect because the largest increases occur in the survival of infants, and, although the reduction in mortality increases the number of old persons, it increases the number of children even more. The result is that the high fertility found in low-income countries produces a proportion of children under fifteen of 40 to 45 per cent of the total population, compared to 25 per cent or less in most of the industrialized countries.

What do these characteristics of rapid growth and very large proportions of children imply about the capacity to achieve rapid industrialization? It must be noted that it is probably technically possible in every less-developed area to increase national output at rates even more rapid than the very rapid rates of population increase we have discussed, at least for a few years. The reason at least slight increases in per capita income appear feasible is that the low-income countries can import industrial and agricultural technology as well as medical technology. Briefly, the realistic question in the short run does not seem to be whether some increases in per capita income are possible while the population grows rapidly, but rather whether rapid population growth is a major deterrent to a rapid and continuing increase in per capita income.

A specific example will clarify this point. If the birth rate in India is not reduced, its population will probably double in the next 25 or 30 years, increasing from about 450 million to about 900 million. Agricultural experts consider it feasible within achievable limits of capital investment to accomplish a doubling of Indian agricultural output within the next 20 to 25 years. In the same period the output of the non-agricultural part of the Indian economy probably would be slightly more than doubled if the birth rate remained unchanged.

For a generation at least, then, India’s economic output probably can stay ahead of its maximum rate of population increase. This bare excess over the increase in population, however, is scarcely a satisfactory outcome of India’s struggle to achieve economic betterment. The real question is: Could India and the other less-developed areas of the world do substantially better if their birth rates and thus their population growth rates were reduced? Economic analysis clearly indicates that the answer is yes. Any growth of population adds to the rate of increase of national output that must be achieved in order to increase per capita output by any given amount.

To double per capita output in 30 years requires an annual increase in per capita output of 2.3 per cent; if population growth is three per cent a year, then the annual increase in national output must be raised to 5.3 per cent to achieve the desired level of economic growth. In either instance an economy, to grow, must divert effort and resources from producing for current consumption to the enhancement of future productivity. In other words, to grow faster an economy must raise its level of net investment. Net investment is investment in factories, roads, irrigation networks, and fertilizer plants, and also in education and training. The low-income countries find it difficult to mobilize resources for these purposes for three reasons: The pressure to use all available resources for current consumption is great; rapid population growth adds very substantially to the investment targets that must be met to achieve any given rate of increase in material well-being; and the very high proportions of children that result from high fertility demand that a larger portion of national output must be used to support a very large number of non-earning dependents. These dependents create pressure to produce for immediate consumption only. In individual terms, the family with a large number of children finds it more difficult to save, and a government that tries to finance development expenditures out of taxes can expect less support from a population with many children. Moreover, rapid population growth and a heavy burden of child dependency divert investment funds to less productive uses—that is, less productive in the long run. To achieve a given level of literacy in a population much more must be spent on schools. In an expanding population of large families, construction effort must go into housing rather than into factories or power plants.

Thus the combination of continued high fertility and greatly reduced mortality in the less-developed countries raises the levels of investment required while impairing the capacity of the economy to achieve high levels of investment. Economists have estimated that a gradual reduction in the rate of childbearing, totaling 50 per cent in 30 years, would add about 40 per cent to the income per consumer that could be achieved by the end of that time.

To recapitulate, a short-term increase in per capita income may be possible in most less-developed areas, even if the fertility rate is not reduced. Nevertheless, even in the short run, progress will be much faster and more certain if the birth rate falls. In the longer run, economic progress will eventually be stopped and reversed unless the birth rate declines or the death rate increases. Economic progress will be slower and more doubtful if less-developed areas wait for the supposedly inevitable impact of modernization on the birth rate. They run the risk that rapid population growth and adverse age distribution would themselves prevent the achievement of the very modernization they count on to bring the birth rate down.

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Impact of Population Growth

John P. Holdren , Paul R. Ehrlich | October 22, 2019 | Leave a Comment Download as PDF

It is more important now than ever to talk about population. What will we do if we continue to grow at exponential rates? What are ethical, viable strategies to decrease population?

This is a blog in the  MAHB Let’s Talk About Population Blog Series.

Complacency concerning this component of man’s predicament is unjustified and counterproductive.

The interlocking crises in population, resources, and environment have been the focus of countless papers, dozens of prestigious symposia, and a growing avalanche of books. In this wealth of material, several questionable assertions have been appearing with increasing frequency. Perhaps the most serious of these is the notion that the size and growth rate of the U.S. population are only minor contributors to this country’s adverse impact on local and global environments (1, 2). We propose to deal with this and several related misconceptions here, before persistent and unrebutted repetition entrenches them in the public mind—if not the scientific literature. Our discussion centers around five theorems which we believe are demonstrably true and which provide a framework for realistic analysis:

• Population growth causes a disproportionate negative impact on the environment.
• Problems of population size and growth, resource utilization and depletion, and environmental deterioration must be considered jointly and on a global basis. In this context, population control is obviously not a panacea—it is necessary but not alone sufficient to see us through the crisis.
• Population density is a poor measure of population pressure, and redistributing population would be a dangerous pseudosolution to the population problem.
• “Environment” must be broadly construed to include such things as the physical environment of urban ghettos, the human behavioral environment, and the epidemiological environment.
• Theoretical solutions to our problems are often not operational and sometimes are not solutions.

We now examine these theorems in some detail.

Population Size and Per Capita Impact

In an agricultural or technological society, each human individual has a negative impact on his environment. He is responsible for some of the simplification (and resulting destabilization) of ecological systems which results from the practice of agriculture (3). He also participates in the utilization of renewable and nonrenewable resources. The total negative impact of such a society on the environment can be expressed, in the simplest terms, by the relation

where P is the population, and F is a function which measures the per capita impact. A great deal of complexity is subsumed in this simple relation, however. For example, F increases with per capita consumption if technology is held constant, but may decrease in some cases if more benign technologies are introduced in the provision of a constant level of consumption. (We shall see in connection with theorem 5 that there are limits to the improvements one should anticipate from such “technological fixes.’’)

Pitfalls abound in the interpretation of manifest increases in the total impact I . For instance, it is easy to mistake changes in the composition of resource demand or environmental impact for absolute per capita increases, and thus to underestimate the role of the population multiplier. Moreover, it is often assumed that population size and per capita impact are independent variables, when in fact they are not. Consider, for example, the recent article by Coale (1), in which he disparages the role of U.S. population growth in environmental problems by noting that since 1940 “population has increased by 50 percent, but per capita use of electricity has been multiplied several times.” This argument contains both the fallacies to which we have just referred.

First, a closer examination of very rapid increases in many kinds of consumption shows that these changes reflect a shift among alternatives within a larger (and much more slowly growing) category. Thus the 760 percent increase in electricity consumption from 1940 to 1969 (4) occurred in large part because the electrical component of the energy budget was (and is) increasing much faster than the budget itself. (Electricity comprised 12 percent of the U.S. energy consumption in 1940 versus 22 percent today.) The total energy use, a more important figure than its electrical component in terms of resources and the environment, increased much less dramatically—140 percent from 1940 to 1969. Under the simplest assumption (that is, that a given increase in population size accounts for an exactly proportional increase in consumption), this would mean that 38 percent of the increase in energy use during this period is explained by population growth (the actual population increase from 1940 to 1969 was 53 percent). Similar considerations reveal the imprudence of citing, say, aluminum consumption to show that population growth is an “unimportant” factor in resource use. Certainly, aluminum consumption has swelled by over 1400 percent since 1940, but much of the increase has been due to the substitution of aluminum for steel in many applications. Thus a fairer measure is combined consumption of aluminum and steel, which has risen only 117 percent since 1940. Again, under the simplest assumption, population growth accounts for 45 percent of the increase.

The “simplest assumption” is not valid, however, and this is the second flaw in Coale’s example (and in his thesis). In short, he has failed to recognize that per capita consumption of energy and resources, and the associated per capita impact on the environment, are themselves functions of the population size. Our previous equation is more accurately written

I = P • F (P)

displaying the fact that impact can increase faster than linearly with population. Of course, whether F (P) is an increasing or decreasing function of P depends in part on whether diminishing returns or economies of scale are dominant in the activities of importance. In populous, industrial nations such as the United States, most economies of scale are already being exploited; we are on the diminishing returns part of most of the important curves,

As one example of diminishing returns, consider the problem of providing nonrenewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels to a growing population, even at fixed levels of per capita consumption, As the richest supplies of these resources and those nearest to centers of use are consumed, we are obliged to use lower-grade ores, drill deeper, and extend our supply networks. All these activities increase our per capita use of energy and our per capita impact on the environment. In the case of partly renewable resources such as water (which is effectively nonrenewable when groundwater supplies are mined at rates far exceeding natural recharge), per capita costs and environmental impact escalate dramatically when the human population demands more than is locally available. Here the loss of free-flowing rivers and other economic, esthetic, and ecological costs of massive water-movement projects represent increased per capita diseconomies directly stimulated by population growth.

Diminishing returns are also operative in increasing food production to meet the needs of growing populations. Typically, attempts are made both to overproduce on land already farmed and to extend agriculture to marginal land. The former requires disproportionate energy use in obtaining and distributing water, fertilizer, and pesticides. The latter also increases per capita energy use, since the amount of energy invested per unit yield increases as less desirable land is cultivated. Similarly, as the richest fisheries stocks are depleted, the yield per unit effort drops, and more and more energy per capita is required to maintain the supply (5). Once a stock is depleted it may not recover—it may be nonrenewable.

Population size influences per capita impact in ways other than diminishing returns. As one example, consider the oversimplified but instructive situation in which each person in the population has links with every other person—roads, telephone lines, and so forth. These links involve energy and materials in their construction and use. Since the number of links increases much more rapidly than the number of people (6), so does the per capita consumption associated with the links.

Other factors may cause much steeper positive slopes in the per capita impact function, F(P) . One phenomenon is the threshold effect . Below a certain level of pollution trees will survive in smog. But, at some point, when a small increment in population produces a small increment in smog, living trees become dead trees. Five hundred people may be able to live around a lake and dump their raw sewage into the lake, and the natural systems of the lake will be able to break down the sewage and keep the lake from undergoing rapid ecological change. Five hundred and five people may overload the system and result in a “polluted” or eutrophic lake. Another phenomenon capable of causing near-discontinuities is the synergism . For instance, as cities push out into farmland, air pollution increasingly becomes a mixture of agricultural chemicals with power plant and automobile effluents. Sulfur dioxide from the city paralyzes the cleaning mechanisms of the lungs, thus increasing the residence time of potential carcinogens in the agricultural chemicals. The joint effect may be much more than the sum of the individual effects. Investigation of synergistic effects is one of the most neglected areas of environmental evaluation.

Not only is there a connection between population size and per capita damage to the environment, but the cost of maintaining environmental quality at a given level escalates disproportionately as population size increases. This effect occurs in part because costs increase very rapidly as one tries to reduce contaminants per unit volume of effluent to lower and lower levels (diminishing returns again!). Consider municipal sewage, for example. The cost of removing 80 to 90 percent of the biochemical and chemical oxygen demand, 90 percent of the suspended solids, and 60 percent of the resistant organic material by means of secondary treatment is about 8 cents per 1000 gallons (3785 liters) in a large plant (7). But if the volume of sewage is such that its nutrient content creates a serious eutrophication problem (as is the case in the United States today), or if supply considerations dictate the reuse of sewage water for industry, agriculture, or groundwater recharge, advanced treatment is necessary. The cost ranges from two to four times as much as for secondary treatment (17 cents per 1000 gallons for carbon absorption; 34 cents per 1000 gallons for disinfection to yield a potable supply). This dramatic example of diminishing returns in pollution control could be repeated for stack gases, automobile exhausts, and so forth.

Now consider a situation in which the limited capacity of the environment to absorb abuse requires that we hold man’s impact in some sector constant as population doubles. This means per capita effectiveness of pollution control in this sector must double (that is, effluent per person must be halved). In a typical situation, this would yield doubled per capita costs, or quadrupled total costs (and probably energy consumption) in this sector for a doubling of population. Of course, diminishing returns and threshold effects may be still more serious: we may easily have an eightfold increase in control costs for a doubling of population. Such arguments leave little ground for the assumption, popularized by Barry Commoner (2, 8) and others, that a 1 percent rate of population growth spawns only 1 percent effects.

It is to be emphasized that the possible existence of “economies of scale” does not invalidate these arguments. Such savings, if available at all, would apply in the case of our sewage example to a change in the amount of effluent to be handled at an installation of a given type. For most technologies, the United States is already more than populous enough to achieve such economies and is doing so. They are accounted for in our example by citing figures for the largest treatment plants of each type. Population growth, on the other hand, forces us into quantitative and qualitative changes in how we handle each unit volume of effluent—what fraction and what kinds of material we remove. Here economies of scale do not apply at all, and diminishing returns are the rule.

Global Context

We will not deal in detail with the best example of the global nature and interconnections of population resource and environmental problems—namely, the problems involved in feeding a world in which 10 to 20 million people starve to death annually (9), and in which the population is growing by some 70 million people per year. The ecological problems created by high-yield agriculture are awesome (3, 10) and are bound to have a negative feedback on food production. Indeed, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that in 1969 the world suffered its first absolute decline in fisheries yield since 1950. It seems likely that part of this decline is attributable to pollution originating in terrestrial agriculture.

A second source of the fisheries decline is, of course, overexploitation of fisheries by the developed countries. This problem, in turn, is illustrative of the situation in regard to many other resources, where similarly rapacious and shortsighted behavior by the developed nations is compromising the aspirations of the bulk of humanity to a decent existence. It is now becoming more widely comprehended that the United States alone accounts for perhaps 30 percent of the nonrenewable resources consumed in the world each year (for example, 37 percent of the energy, 25 percent of the steel, 28 percent of the tin, and 33 percent of the synthetic rubber) (11). This behavior is in large part inconsistent with American rhetoric about “developing” the countries of the Third World. We may be able to afford the technology to mine lower grade deposits when we have squandered the world’s rich ores, but the underdeveloped countries, as their needs grow and their means remain meager, will not be able to do so. Some observers argue that the poor countries are today economically dependent on our use of their resources, and indeed that economists in these countries complain that world demand for their raw materials is too low (1). This proves only that their economists are as shortsighted as ours.

It is abundantly clear that the entire context in which we view the world resource pool and the relationships between developed and underdeveloped countries must be changed, if we are to have any hope of achieving a stable and prosperous existence for all human beings. It cannot be stated too forcefully that the developed countries (or, more accurately, the overdeveloped countries) are the principal culprits in the consumption and dispersion of the world’s nonrenewable resources (12) as well as in appropriating much more than their share of the world’s protein. Because of this consumption, and because of the enormous negative impact on the global environment accompanying it, the population growth in these countries must be regarded as the most serious in the world today.

In relation to theorem 2 we must emphasize that, even if population growth were halted, the present population of the world could easily destroy civilization as we know it. There is a wide choice of weapons—from unstable plant monocultures and agricultural hazes to DDT, mercury, and thermonuclear bombs. If population size were reduced and per capita consumption remained the same (or increased), we would still quickly run out of vital, high-grade resources or generate conflicts over diminishing supplies. Racism, economic exploitation, and war will not be eliminated by population control (of course, they are unlikely to be eliminated without it).

Population Density and Distribution

Theorem 3 deals with a problem related to the inequitable utilization of world resources. One of the commonest errors made by the uninitiated is to assume that population density (people per square mile) is the critical measure of overpopulation or underpopulation. For instance, Wattenberg states that the United States is not very crowded by “international standards” because Holland has 18 times the population density (13). We call this notion “the Netherlands fallacy.” The Netherlands actually requires large chunks of the earth’s resources and vast areas of land not within its borders to maintain itself. For example, it is the second largest per capita importer of protein in the world, and it imports 63 percent of its cereals, including 100 percent of its corn and rice. It also imports all of its cotton, 77 percent of its wool, and all of its iron ore, antimony, bauxite, chromium, copper, gold, lead, magnesite, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, silver, tin, tungsten, vanadium, zinc, phosphate rock (fertilizer), potash (fertilizer), asbestos, and diamonds. It produces energy equivalent to some 20 million metric tons of coal and consumes the equivalent of over 47 million metric tons (14).

A certain preoccupation with density as a useful measure of overpopulation is apparent in the article by Coale (1). He points to the existence of urban problems such as smog in Sydney, Australia, “even though the total population of Australia is about 12 million in an area 80 percent as big as the United States,” as evidence that environmental problems are unrelated to population size. His argument would be more persuasive if problems of population distribution were the only ones with environmental consequences, and if population distribution were unrelated to resource distribution and population size. Actually, since the carrying capacity of the Australian continent is far below that of the United States, one would expect distribution problems—of which Sydney’s smog is one symptom—to be encountered at a much lower total population there. Resources, such as water, are in very short supply, and people cluster where resources are available. (Evidently, it cannot be emphasized enough that carrying capacity includes the availability of a wide variety of resources in addition to space itself, and that population pressure is measured relative to the carrying capacity. One would expect water, soils, or the ability of the environment to absorb wastes to be the limiting resource in far more instances than land area.)

In addition, of course, many of the most serious environmental problems are essentially independent of the way in which population is distributed. These include the global problems of weather modification by carbon dioxide and particulate pollution, and the threats to the biosphere posed by man’s massive inputs of pesticides, heavy metals, and oil (15). Similarly, the problems of resource depletion and ecosystem simplification by agriculture depend on how many people there are and their patterns of consumption, but not in any major way on how they are distributed.

Naturally, we do not dispute that smog and most other familiar urban ills are serious problems, or that they are related to population distribution. Like many of the difficulties we face, these problems will not be cured simply by stopping population growth; direct and well-conceived assaults on the problems themselves will also be required. Such measures may occasionally include the redistribution of population, but the considerable difficulties and costs of this approach should not be underestimated. People live where they do not because of a perverse intention to add to the problems of their society but for reasons of economic necessity, convenience, and desire for agreeable surroundings. Areas that are uninhabited or sparsely populated today are presumably that way because they are deficient in some of the requisite factors. In many cases, the remedy for such deficiencies—for example, the provision of water and power to the wastelands of central Nevada—would be extraordinarily expensive in dollars, energy, and resources and would probably create environmental havoc. (Will we justify the rape of Canada’s rivers to “colonize” more of our western deserts?)

Moving people to more “habitable” areas, such as the central valley of California or, indeed, most suburbs, exacerbates another serious problem— the paving-over of prime farmland. This is already so serious in California that, if current trends continue, about 50 percent of the best acreage in the nation’s leading agricultural state will be destroyed by the year 2020 (16). Encouraging that trend hardly seems wise.

Whatever attempts may be made to solve distribution-related problems, they will be undermined if population growth continues, for two reasons. First, population growth and the aggravation of distribution problems are correlated—part of the increase will surely be absorbed in urban areas that can least afford the growth. Indeed, barring the unlikely prompt reversal of present trends, most of it will be absorbed there. Second, population growth puts a disproportionate drain on the very financial resources needed to ’combat its symptoms. Economist Joseph Spengler has estimated that 4 percent of national income goes to support our 1 percent per year rate of population growth in the United States (17). The 4 percent figure now amounts to about $30 billion per year. It seems safe to conclude that the faster we grow the less likely it is that we will find the funds either to alter population distribution patterns or to deal more comprehensively and realistically with our problems.

Meaning of Environment

Theorem 4 emphasizes the comprehensiveness of the environment crisis. All too many people think in terms of national parks and trout streams when they say “environment.” For this reason many of the suppressed people of our nation consider ecology to be just one more “racist shuck” (18). They are apathetic or even hostile toward efforts to avert further environmental and sociological deterioration, because they have no reason. to believe they will share the fruits of success (19). Slums, cockroaches, and rats are ecological problems, too. The correction of ghetto conditions in Detroit is neither more nor less important than saving the Great Lakes—both are imperative.

We must pay careful attention to sources of conflict both within the United States and between nations. Conflict within the United States blocks progress toward solving our problems; conflict among nations can easily “solve” them once and for all. Recent laboratory studies on human beings support the anecdotal evidence that crowding may increase aggressiveness in human males (20). These results underscore long-standing suspicions that population growth, translated through the inevitable uneven distribution into physical crowding, will tend to make the solution of all of our problems more difficult.

As a final example of the need to view “environment” broadly, note that human beings live in an epidemiological environment which deteriorates with crowding and malnutrition—both of which increase with population growth. The hazard posed by the prevalence of these conditions in the world today is compounded by man’s unprecedented mobility: potential carriers of diseases of every description move routinely and in substantial numbers from continent to continent in a matter of hours. Nor is there any reason to believe that modern medicine has made widespread plague impossible (21). The Asian influenza epidemic of 1968 killed relatively few people only because the virus happened to be nonfatal to people in otherwise good health, not because of public health measures. Far deadlier viruses, which easily could be scourges without precedent in the population at large, have on more than one occasion been confined to research workers largely by good luck [for example, the Marburg virus incident of 1967 (22) and the Lassa fever incident of 1970 (21, 23)].

Solutions: Theoretical and Practical

Theorem 5 states that theoretical solutions to our problems are often not operational, and sometimes are not solutions. In terms of the problem of feeding the world, for example, technological fixes suffer from limitations in scale, lead time, and cost (24). Thus potentially attractive theoretical approaches—such as desalting seawater for agriculture, new irrigation systems, high-protein diet supplements—prove inadequate in practice. They are too little, too late, and too expensive, or they have sociological costs which hobble their effectiveness (25). Moreover, many aspects of our technological fixes, such as synthetic organic pesticides and inorganic nitrogen fertilizers, have created vast environmental problems which seem certain to erode global productivity and ecosystem stability (26). This is not to say that important gains have not been made through the application of technology to agriculture in the poor countries, or that further technological advances are not worth seeking. But it must be stressed that even the most enlightened technology cannot relieve the necessity of grappling forthrightly and promptly with population growth [as Norman Borlaug aptly observed on being notified of his Nobel Prize for development of the new wheats (27)].

Technological attempts to ameliorate the environmental impact of population growth and rising per capita affluence in the developed countries suffer from practical limitations similar to those just mentioned. Not only do such measures tend to be slow, costly, and insufficient in scale, but in addition they most often shift our impact rather than remove it. For example, our first generation of smog-control devices increased emissions of oxides of nitrogen while reducing those of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Our unhappiness about eutrophication has led to the replacement of phosphates in detergents with compounds like NTA—nitrilotriacetic acid—which has carcinogenic breakdown products and apparently enhances teratogenic effects of heavy metals (28). And our distaste for lung diseases apparently induced by sulfur dioxide inclines us to accept the hazards of radioactive waste disposal, fuel reprocessing, routine low-level emissions of radiation, and an apparently small but finite risk of catastrophic accidents associated with nuclear fission power plants. Similarly, electric automobiles would simply shift part of the environmental burden of personal transportation from the vicinity of highways to the vicinity of power plants.

We are not suggesting here that electric cars, or nuclear power plants, or substitutes for phosphates are inherently bad. We argue rather that they, too, pose environmental costs which must be weighed against those they eliminate. In many cases the choice is not obvious, and in all cases there will be some environmental impact. The residual per capita impact, after all the best choices have been made, must then be multiplied by the population engaging in the activity. If there are too many people, even the most wisely managed technology will not keep the environment from being overstressed.

In contending that a change in the way we use technology will invalidate these arguments, Commoner (2, 8) claims that our important environmental problems began in the 1940’s with the introduction and rapid spread of certain “synthetic” technologies: pesticides and herbicides, inorganic fertilizers, plastics, nuclear energy, and high-compression gasoline engines. In so arguing, he appears to make two unfounded assumptions. The first is that man’s pre-1940 environmental impact was innocuous and, without changes for the worse in technology, would have remained innocuous even at a much larger population size. The second assumption is that the advent of the new technologies was independent of the attempt to meet human needs and desires in a growing population. Actually, man’s record as a simplifier of ecosystems and plunderer of resources can be traced from his probable role in the extinction of many Pleistocene mammals (29), through the destruction of the soils of Mesopotamia by salination and erosion, to the deforestation of Europe in the Middle Ages and the American dustbowls of the 1930’s, to cite only some highlights. Man’s contemporary arsenal of synthetic technological bludgeons indisputably magnifies the potential for disaster, but these were evolved in some measure to cope with population pressures, not independently of them. Moreover, it is worth noting that, of the four environmental threats viewed by the prestigious Williamstown study (15) as globally significant, three are associated with pre-1940 technologies which have simply increased in scale [heavy metals, oil in the seas, and carbon dioxide and particulates in the atmosphere, the latter probably due in considerable part to agriculture (30)]. Surely, then, we can anticipate that supplying food, fiber, and metals for a population even larger than today’s will have a profound (and destabilizing) effect on the global ecosystem under any set of technological assumptions.

John Platt has aptly described man’s present predicament as “a storm of crisis problems” (31). Complacency concerning any component of these problems—sociological, technological, economic, ecological—is unjustified and counterproductive. It is time to admit that there are no monolithic solutions to the problems we face. Indeed, population control, the redirection of technology, the transition from open to closed resource cycles, the equitable distribution of opportunity and the ingredients of prosperity must all be accomplished if there is to be a future worth having. Failure in any of these areas will surely sabotage the entire enterprise.

In connection with the five theorems elaborated here, we have dealt at length with the notion that population growth in industrial nations such as the United States is a minor factor, safely ignored. Those who so argue often add that, anyway, population control would be the slowest to take effect of all possible attacks on our various problems, since the inertia in attitudes and in the age structure of the population is so considerable. To conclude that this means population control should be assigned low priority strikes us as curious logic. Precisely because population is the most difficult and slowest to yield among the components of environmental deterioration, we must start on it at once. To ignore population today because the problem is a tough one is to commit ourselves to even gloomier prospects 20 years hence, when most of the “easy” means to reduce per capita impact on the environment will have been exhausted. The desperate and repressive measures for population control which might be contemplated then are reason in themselves to proceed with foresight, alacrity, and compassion today.

This article was originally published in Science on March 26, 1971. To review the sources, please download the article here .

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The Problem Of Population Growth

• Category Sociology
• Subcategory Human Populations
• Topic Population Growth

Population growth – intro

Right now there are 7.7 billion people in the world. This is increasingly bigger than anything we have ever seen before. With a massive spike of growth between 1960 and 2020 with 4.7 billion people increase, now, the population is growing fast it is steady and there is predicted to be 10 billion people in 2050. This will be an increase of 35% The more people on earth means more energy usage, more fuel, and more carbon emissions. With a greater need for these resources, we run into the problem of having not enough usable space for all our needs. Not to mention the growing population will need bigger cities, impacting our already high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. So, we need to plant more trees to sequence the carbon, but because our population is growing so fast, we need more housing which means larger cities, more farms for food, and more energy plants, so the question is where does everything go?

Expanding Cities

The growing population means there will need to be more housing and cities. These expanding cities take land from the natural world. This leaves ecosystems and resources destroyed. As there are more people they will need housing and this only leads to land clearing. We will need to take space away from agricultural land (which we need for farming and rainforests which provide us with clean air) to house the growing population. Having less agriculture and more/bigger cities creates a larger carbon footprint and a faster route to climate change. A child’s carbon legacy is the estimated amount of carbon dioxide produced by an individual. Because the carbon legacy of just one child can produce 20 times more greenhouse gas than a person will save by driving a high-mileage car, recycling, using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, etc. overpopulation is becoming one of the leading causes of climate change.

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Right now 95% of the human population lives in 10% of the Earth’s land surface. This means technically, there is enough space to expand cities, but the more area we take up the less natural habitats there will be. This not only harms other animals ecosystems but destroys our planet altogether by removing its natural resources. As Dr. Kim Johnson says, “We need to use our space as effectively as possible, and as sustainably as possible…we can’t just keep expanding”. This cannot be more true. If we are to have any hope of overcoming population growth, we need to think smarter and not larger.

Urbanization is increasing rapidly with more than 54% of humans living in cities and still increasing 2% a year. This is because people move from rural areas to cities to find jobs and an easier life. Urbanization really started in the 1800s’ at the beginning of the industrial revolution. There will need to be more jobs to sustain the number of people, but as of now, we don’t know if there will be. Because of new technology advancements, some people say that they will create more jobs while others say it will reduce them because technology can do our jobs for us. This can already be seen with machine-run farms and factories. On the other hand, we already know as our world changes more jobs become irrelevant and others are created. For example, a video creator wasn’t a job in the 2000s but now YouTubers are a very large job industry. We can only predict that our society will evolve with the population changes to suit our needs.

According to the United Nations DESA / Population Division, it is estimated that over half of the world’s total population lives in just seven countries with a combined population of 3.97 billion people. Expectedly, the most populated country is China with approx. 1.42 billion people followed by India with 1.35 billion. When added together the other five countries; United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Nigeria, while still having very large populations, have fewer people than India alone. To put it in perspective there are 195 countries in the world, that’s 188 countries that when combined, have less than these seven countries with a total population of 3.66 billion people. So, what is it about these seven countries that make them so much larger than the rest?

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Population planning is internationally planning the growth rate of a human population.

1979 China introduced a one-child policy after a decade-long two-child policy.

This limited families to only having one child to help reduce population growth (with exceptions such as if you lived in a rural area and the firstborn was a girl).

More than 500 million births were prevented and if the law had continued, by 2060 it would have prevented as many as 1 billion births.

This law was eliminated in 2015 but in 2016 they brought back the two-child policy.

As population growth becomes more and more of a reality, more disadvantages are becoming evident. We can see how population growth puts a strain on resources, especially food, space, clean water, and health care. The shortage of these resources creates a larger gap between the upper and lower classes in society. This is because as necessities become rarer or harder to obtain, their value goes up as does the price. This means only the rich can afford things we consider a human right and leads to poor further into poverty. The more buildings needed to house the growing population results in damage to these resources by cutting down rainforests to make space for them and polluting the atmosphere, thus creating a greater carbon footprint and a faster route to climate change.

Even though population growth is seen as a bad thing we cannot overlook what might be good about it. As the population grows there will be a greater genetic diversity, giving us a better chance of surviving a particular disease or disaster.

Introduction

As the world changes, so do the challenges we are facing in the future. We believe that in 2050, our main issues are going to be climate change, population growth, food security, diseases, and money. If we want to survive as a species, we have to find solutions to these ever-growing problems. In this blog, we provide information on these issues so you can stay aware of what is happening to our plant; after all, it is our home. We also have solutions, what we need to do as a collective to prevent these problems, and ways you can help combat them.

Dr. Kim Johnson Photo Description

We were lucky enough to speak with Dr. Kim Johnson and learn from her expertise in food security. We had an initial lecture which is what sparked our interest in learning about food security. After some individual research, we had the opportunity to speak with her again in smaller groups, allowing us to get more in-depth in our questions. She provided answers to some tricky questions we had. Throughout this blog, you will see quotes said by Dr. Kim Johnson with her opinions and knowledge about Food Security

Solutions Introduction:

After researching what we believe will be the top issues of 2050, we have compiled a selection of solutions that can help us either fix that particular issue or reduce its impact on our world. We focus these solutions on Food Security, Population Growth, and Climate Change as we believe they will be the three most important issues we will have to face before 2050. In the solutions, there are ways you can help at home and things we have to do as a society. For all of these issues, the main changes will be the government and big corporations but there are things you can do to help out. Providing awareness and taking responsibility for your actions is something you can do to help all of these issues. We recommend reading more about our issues in the ‘our issues’ tab up top before reading these solutions so you can better understand the issues we are facing for our future.

There isn’t going to be one simple answer to population growth that we can write here, but there are things that we as a society need to do and things you can do yourself that can help us in the race to beat population growth by 2050 and eliminate it from our issues list. Whilst finding a way to slow down population growth is of course important, we also need to find ways we can survive as the population does grow like using more efficient methods of farming and gathering resources, and building more sustainable, eco-friendly cities. These are our solutions to population growth.

As a society, we have a human responsibility to do what we can to protect and save our planet. We need everyone to get on board, especially governments, and large companies if we have any hope of changing our future. To prevent the rapidly growing population from becoming too large for our planet to handle there are a few things we need to do. A key problem contributing to population growth is unwanted pregnancies, especially in third-world countries. We can reduce the number of accidental births by providing sex education to everyone around the world. It was recorded that two in five pregnancies are reported as accidental or never wanted. If we spread awareness about the importance of safe sex we can reduce this number evenly, thus reducing the speed of population growth. Again with education, uneducated children are more likely to focus more on the family as they cannot get a job or have many other goals in life. It is proven that women who have completed at least some schooling have children later in life than those who do not attend school. Guaranteeing education at least through secondary school to everyone especially girls is extremely important when it comes to population growth. Women who have the same rights as men are more likely to postpone childbearing and have fewer children as they focus on their jobs and careers. Creating equal rights for men and women will be a huge step towards slower population growth. Whilst we are moving forward to a more equal society, there are still things we need to improve on. Having equal pay, equal job opportunities, and equal rights are all things that men are still dominant in which cannot be the case.

No matter how much we slow it down, population growth is inevitable and we have to prepare for it. Finding better, more sustainable ways of farming and using agricultural land is very important when it comes to population growth. With a greater population, we will need more space, more resources, basically more of everything. We need to use our space efficiently to combat the need for more things. Dr. Kim Johnson puts it perfectly stating how we need to “Increase the yield and productivity on that land so that we’re not using more land”. This means we will not need much more land for farming and can use it for forests and natural habitats. This leads to our next point, increasing forests and wetlands to combat our carbon footprint. The growing population leaves a greater carbon footprint with larger cities, more people, and bigger factories. We need to combat this with plants and agriculture and cutting down forests to make more space for farming land is only going to make it worse.

With the battle of finding space for all of our resources and human needs, there are a few things you can do yourself. Growing your own food and buying locally grown crops will help by reducing the amount of product big corporations make, if we don’t buy it, they won’t make it. If there is less demand for a specific product, they won’t need as much space to produce it, thus reducing farming land. To save resources it is proven that a largely plant-based diet is best with less meat, especially red meat. Red meats like beef, lamb, and pork use a lot of resources to produce. They need feeding, drinking water, looking after, and land space. By simply adjusting our diets we can make a HUGE difference in not only saving space and many other world problems like climate change. We can’t just leave it up to others to fix the problems of our planet, we all need to play our part and contribute if we are to have any hope of overcoming population growth and the problems it brings. 

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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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Essay on Population Growth in English for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Essay on Population Growth: Population growth today has become a serious matter of concern for the world. The world population has been consistently increasing at an alarming rate and is estimated to be around 7.7 billion in 2019. Uncontrolled population growth leads to rapid urbanization and depletion of resources. Natural resources that are pretty scarce in some parts of the world become scarcer due to increased consumption. Apart from depleting resources, a population increase means more buildings and factories come up and more tress fell and forests destroyed. It also puts an strain on the availability of basic amenities like health, education and welfare.

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Long and Short Essay on Population Growth in English

We have provided below short and long essay on population growth in English for your information and knowledge.

The essays have been written in simple yet effective English so that you can easily grasp the information and present it whenever needed.

After going through these population growth essay you will know what the effects of population growth on natural resources, what is the trend of population growth in different countries; advantages and disadvantages of population growth etc.

The information given in the essays can be used in school/college during speech giving, essay writing and other competitions.

Short Essay on Population Growth – Essay 1 (200 Words)

In today’s time the population has become one of the leading problems of world. It requires a quick and serious attention from all of us. The worst situation due to growing population now can be seen in many countries where people are struggling with shortage of food, shelter, pure water and also have to breathe polluted air.

Increased Population Affects the Natural Resources

This crisis is growing day by day and affecting completely our natural resources as more people results in more consumption of water, food, land, tree and also the fossil fuels badly impacting the environment in many ways. In current time, over population has become a curse to the existence of natural beauty. People are suffering from various diseases due to polluted air in environment.

Population may cause unemployment and also effects the economical development of any country. Due to consistently increasing level of population, poverty is also growing in many countries. People are bounded to live under limited resources and supplements. In many countries including India, population has crossed all its limits and as result we find high illiteracy level, poor health services and lack of resources in the rural areas.

Essay on Population Growth and Its Effects – Essay 2 (300 Words)

Introduction

Population of the World is increasing day by day and it is becoming a huge concern for the world. As per latest data, population is already crossed 7.6 billion in the world. Increase in population affects the economic, environmental and social development of the world.

Different Country with Different Population

Population growth is not uniform in all the countries of the World. Some Countries have high growth while some are having moderate or a very low increase in their population. It creates lot of challenges as countries with high growth are suffering with poverty, more expenses, unemployment, lack of fresh water, food, education, depletion of resources etc as a consequence of population explosion, while countries with low population growth have lack of manpower, an increased old to young ratio , hampering the Country’s growth.

Effects of Population Growth

Let’s see how population affects a country in various ways:

• Population increase results in more consumption of natural resources.
• Increased demand for everything while the production of the necessary items doesn’t keep up as population growth.
• Increase in unemployment, sometimes resulting in the youth’s misguidance towards other illegitimate methods of earning.
• Government has to spend more on basic necessities such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, irrigation, water etc while the revenue are not increasing as per population growth, so demand and supply difference is consistently increasing, resulting an increase in prices of items.
• Unemployment reduces the capacity of expenditure and families spent its saving on basic need and can’t afford the good education for their children. This results in low qualification and low chance of employment for children when they reach their working age. It affects the growth in economy and industrial expansion.

Population growth rate is needed to be controlled to save the World especially in those countries with faster growth rate. It will balance the system as manpower is required for the growth of country.

Essay on Population Growth is Good for a Country – Essay 3 (400 Words)

Though over population is a worldwide problem but still in some countries population is below the required rate which is also a serious issue as in those countries less people means less manpower to support and work for the development of that country. Over Population is definitely harmful for any country in many ways but it has some positive side too. Increased population leads to increase in manpower for a country where more people are easily found helping in the development of different sectors.

How Population Growth is Good for a Country?

Controlled population growth is also required for growth of the economy of any country. Let’s see how:

If population of a country is constant or is not increasing, it will create more old age people than the young people. That country will not have enough manpower to do the job. Japan is the best example as there government is motivating to increase the birth rate in an attempt to minimize the age gap. Second best example can be taken of China as 25 years ago here government implemented the rule of one child in a family. After few years when the growth rate of China started reducing and was having less young manpower, then recently they lifted this ban and allowed parents to have two children instead of one.

Population increase will create more manpower and more consumption of items required for basic / luxurious. More consumption means more industry growth to cater that consumption. More industry requires more manpower. Money circulation will improve and cost of living of the country will improve. People in the country will earn money and will educate their kids so that they can do work for the growth of country. Basically it all depends on the controlled growth of population. If population growth is higher than required, it will create problem of unemployment, poverty etc.

Over Population is always has negative impact on a country’s growth but controlled pollution growth is also required for a country to achieve success in many ways. Whether resources may be limited for over populated countries but extra manpower is definitely required for generating extra resources and making new inventions.

Essay on Population Growth in India – Essay 4 (500 Words)

Population is the count of the number of persons living in a particular region. It has reached an alarming rate in some countries. Over population can be due to many causes like illiteracy, improper knowledge of family planning, migration from different places.

India is the Second Highest Populated Country in World

According to survey this whole World is inhabited by around 7.6 billion humans among which a major part 17% of the total population of world is residing in India i.e. more than 125 crore people. Adding to this around 21% Indians are below poverty level as a result of uncontrolled population growth. This may lead to disastrous effects in future and thus it is required to control it in order to live a safe and healthy life.

According to Census of 2011, India’s population has crossed 121 crore and it is at second position after the China in the world. Presently this figure may have crossed 130 crore and in near future, it will surpass that of China China. India is facing a big challenge as population growth. It is adversely affecting India’s economical condition and also responsible for poverty and low living standard of people.

Government has to spend more to provide the basic things at the subsidized rate to cater to the massive population of below poverty line (BPL) consumers. As Government is providing subsidy on basic items, it is left with a minimal amount to be used in, developmental projects aiding to the growth in economy. Government has the fewer amounts to spend on social services such as education, hospital, housing, infrastructure etc which are essentially required for a progressive country. Therefore, a planned growth of our economy needs some effective check on population explosion.

Illiteracy is the Major Cause of over-Population

Illiteracy is the main cause in India for the population growth. People living below poverty line (BPL) are not aware of the consequence of this population growth owe to their illiteracy. People think that more children mean they will earn more money for the family without realizing its impact. Sometimes parents desire boy as they think that he will popular his name and family name. Sometimes they give birth to 3-4 girl children in the desire of single boy.

How Overpopulation causes Unemployment

Overpopulation is the main cause for the unemployment in India. We can see that for any examination or vacancy, millions applications are received. It increases the competition and sometimes people use the bribe to get the job. It also increases the corruption in the system which is India’s growing concern.

Role of Government for Controlling Population in India

Government has taken various initiatives to educate the people about the benefits of family planning. Some major steps are noted here:

• Government has amended the law and fixed the minimum age for marriage of boy and girl.
• Government is creating awareness among people about the importance of family planning, equality of boys and girls, by various advertisements on TV, posters in village etc.
• Government is promoting the education of child by taking minimum fees, providing free mid-day meal, free uniform, books etc.

To make a country developed and powerful every citizen of that country need to take step on his own end apart from blaming on others. Over population may be the biggest cause for the destruction of a nation. We must find out effective solutions to the problem in order to achieve success as a Nation.

Long Essay on Causes, Effects, Solutions of Population Growth – Essay 5 (600 Words)

At present situation the problem of overpopulation comes under the category of global crisis which is growing day by day and with each passing second. This essay is specially written for understanding the issues its causes, its affects and most importantly the solution.

Over Population: Causes, Effects and Solutions

Over population means an increase in the number of people in an area than the number, the resources of that particular area can sustain. Many causes are behind this problem some are:

Causes of Population Growth

• Growth rate of population is higher in developing countries. Reason for this increase is mainly due to lack of knowledge of family planning. Mostly people who are contributing for population growth are illiterate and living below of poverty line. They are also getting their child marrying at an early age without understanding its implication.
• Mostly people come from the rural areas to urban areas/city for the job opportunities or employment and improvement in life style. It creates imbalance in city and shortage of resources.
• Improvement in medical technology/treatment reduces the mortality rate for many serious diseases. A lot of chronic diseases or deadly viruses such as measles, small pox are being treated with the improvement in medical services.
• With the improvement in medical science, it has become possible for couple who are unable to conceive, to undergo fertility treatment methods and have their own babies. Moreover, due to awareness, people go to the hospital for routine checkups and delivery, which are safer for the mother and baby.
• As population increases, consumption of basic need such as food and water will also increase. However Earth can produce a limited amount of water and food, which is lesser in comparison to consumption, leading to an increase in prices.
• Forests are depleting to cater the growth of urbanization that is affecting animals in the forest, causing pollution and imbalance in ecology. Natural resources are depleting very fast due to overuse of coal, oil and natural gas etc. It is creating serious effects on our environment.
• With the increase in population, number of vehicles and industries has increased significantly; badly affecting the quality of air. Rise in amount of release of greenhouse gases causing global warming, which causes melting of ice from iceberg and glaciers. Changing climate patterns, rise in sea level are few of the consequences that we might have to face due to environmental pollution.
• Overpopulation has increased the acts of violence and aggression as people are competing with each other for getting resources and achieving good lifestyle.

Solutions to Protect Population Growth

• Developed countries are not facing problem of overpopulation as people in develop countries are educated and they are aware of consequences of having more kids. While in developing countries, people are not well educated and have no proper idea about family planning. If the education improves then they will understand disadvantage of having more than one or two children.
• In slum areas government has continuously provided some awareness programs to make understand families about the hard life they will have to face with four or five or more children. They also guide them about family planning and efficient birth control.
• Government should impose some restrictions/hard method to control the number of children per couple. Government should also provide some incentives or tax exemption to curb overpopulation.

To live a better life every family need to have proper family planning in manner to provide their kids complete nutritious food, proper shelter, best education and other important resources. A country can only get success when its citizens are healthy and live a happy and content life. Thus controlled population is the key to the success for every Country in the World.

Related Information:

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• Essay on World Population Day
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• Paragraph on Population
• Essay on Overpopulation in World

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Essay on Population Problem

Students are often asked to write an essay on Population Problem in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Population Problem

Introduction.

Population problem refers to the difficulties created by rapidly increasing numbers of people. It’s a global issue affecting many countries.

The main cause of population growth is high birth rates. Lack of education and awareness about family planning also contribute.

Overpopulation leads to scarcity of resources like water and food. It also increases unemployment and poverty.

Promoting education, especially on family planning, can help control population. Government policies can also play a role in managing population growth.

The population problem is a significant challenge. However, with proper planning and awareness, it can be managed effectively.

Also check:

• Speech on Population Problem

250 Words Essay on Population Problem

The population problem, often referred to as overpopulation, is a global concern that is characterized by an increase in the number of people inhabiting the planet at a rate that exceeds the capacity of natural resources to sustain them. This issue is not only a matter of numbers, but also of the impact that such a large population has on the environment, economy, and quality of life.

Causes of Overpopulation

The primary causes of overpopulation include increased birth rates and decreased mortality rates. Advancements in medical technology have significantly reduced mortality rates globally, leading to longer life spans. Simultaneously, in certain societies, cultural and religious norms encourage large families, contributing to an increased birth rate.

Implications of Overpopulation

The implications of overpopulation are vast and interconnected. Economically, an overpopulated society may struggle to provide for its citizens, leading to poverty and unemployment. Environmentally, overpopulation intensifies pressure on natural resources, leading to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and climate change.

Addressing the Population Problem

Addressing the population problem requires a multi-faceted approach. Education, particularly regarding family planning and environmental sustainability, is a key component. Additionally, policy changes that encourage sustainable practices and provide social security can also contribute to managing population growth.

In conclusion, the population problem is a pressing global issue that requires immediate attention. Through education, policy changes, and a shift towards sustainability, it is possible to mitigate the negative impacts of overpopulation and create a more balanced world.

500 Words Essay on Population Problem

The magnitude of the population problem.

The population problem is a global concern that has been escalating over the years. The world’s population, currently at 7.8 billion, is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. This rapid population growth presents numerous challenges, from resource depletion to environmental degradation, and exacerbates socio-economic disparities.

The Impact on Natural Resources

A burgeoning population exerts immense pressure on natural resources. These resources, such as water, arable land, and non-renewable resources like fossil fuels, are finite. As the population grows, the demand for these resources escalates, leading to over-exploitation and, consequently, scarcity. The strain on resources also contributes to environmental degradation, as forests are cleared for agriculture and habitats are destroyed to accommodate human needs.

Population Growth and Socio-Economic Disparities

The population problem is not just about numbers. It’s also about distribution and diversity. Rapid population growth in developing countries often exacerbates socio-economic disparities. The pressure of providing for a growing population can strain public services, leading to inadequate access to education, healthcare, and housing. This often results in a vicious cycle of poverty, as a lack of access to these services hinders social mobility.

The Environmental Impact

Population growth also has a significant impact on the environment. Increased consumption and waste production, driven by population growth, contribute to pollution and climate change. Moreover, the loss of biodiversity due to habitat destruction is a direct consequence of population expansion. This loss of biodiversity can have far-reaching impacts, disrupting ecosystems and potentially leading to the extinction of species.

The Need for Sustainable Solutions

Addressing the population problem calls for sustainable solutions. Family planning and education, particularly for women and girls, can help control population growth. Policies that promote sustainable resource use and consumption are also crucial. Additionally, strategies that address socio-economic disparities, such as investments in public services and social protection, can mitigate the adverse effects of population growth.

The population problem is a complex issue with far-reaching implications. It is intertwined with resource depletion, socio-economic disparities, and environmental degradation. As such, it requires comprehensive, sustainable solutions that address these interconnected challenges. As the global community, we must recognize the urgency of the population problem and take collective action to ensure a sustainable future for all.

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• Essay on Population Control
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• Essay on Increasing Population

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Population Growth Essay

Population growth today has become a serious matter of concern for the world. The world population has been consistently increasing at an alarming rate and is estimated to be around 7.7 billion in 2019. Uncontrolled population growth leads to rapid urbanization and depletion of resources. Natural resources that are pretty scarce in some parts of the world become scarcer due to increased consumption. Apart from depleting resources, a population increase means more buildings and factories come up and more tress fell and forests destroyed. It also puts an strain on the availability of basic amenities like health, education and welfare.

Long and Short Essay on Population Growth in English

We have provided below short and long essay on population growth in English for your information and knowledge.

The essays have been written in simple yet effective English so that you can easily grasp the information and present it whenever needed.

After going through these population growth essay you will know what the effects of population growth on natural resources, what is the trend of population growth in different countries; advantages and disadvantages of population growth etc.

The information given in the essays can be used in school/college during speech giving, essay writing and other competitions.

Short Essay on Population Growth – Essay 1 (200 Words)

In today’s time the population has become one of the leading problems of world. It requires a quick and serious attention from all of us. The worst situation due to growing population now can be seen in many countries where people are struggling with shortage of food, shelter, pure water and also have to breathe polluted air.

Increased Population Affects the Natural Resources

This crisis is growing day by day and affecting completely our natural resources as more people results in more consumption of water, food, land, tree and also the fossil fuels badly impacting the environment in many ways. In current time, over population has become a curse to the existence of natural beauty. People are suffering from various diseases due to polluted air in environment.

Population may cause unemployment and also effects the economical development of any country. Due to consistently increasing level of population, poverty is also growing in many countries. People are bounded to live under limited resources and supplements. In many countries including India, population has crossed all its limits and as result we find high illiteracy level, poor health services and lack of resources in the rural areas.

Essay on Population Growth and Its Effects – Essay 2 (300 Words)

Introduction

Population of the World is increasing day by day and it is becoming a huge concern for the world. As per latest data, population is already crossed 7.6 billion in the world. Increase in population affects the economic, environmental and social development of the world.

Different Country with Different Population

Population growth is not uniform in all the countries of the World. Some Countries have high growth while some are having moderate or a very low increase in their population. It creates  lot of challenges as countries with high growth are suffering with poverty, more expenses, unemployment, lack of fresh water, food, education, depletion of resources etc as a consequence of population explosion, while countries with low population growth have lack of  manpower, an increased old to young ratio , hampering the Country’s growth.

Effects of Population Growth

Let’s see how population affects a country in various ways:

• Population increase results in more consumption of natural resources.
• Increased demand for everything while the production of the necessary items doesn’t keep up as population growth.
• Increase in unemployment, sometimes resulting in the youth’s misguidance towards other illegitimate methods of earning.
• Government has to spend more on basic necessities such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, irrigation, water etc while the revenue are not increasing as per population growth, so demand and supply difference is consistently increasing, resulting an increase in prices of items.
• Unemployment reduces the capacity of expenditure and families spent its saving on basic need and can’t afford the good education for their children. This results in low qualification and low chance of employment for children when they reach their working age. It affects the growth in economy and industrial expansion.

Population growth rate is needed to be controlled to save the World especially in those countries with faster growth rate. It will balance the system as manpower is required for the growth of country.

Essay on Population Growth is Good for a Country – Essay 3 (400 Words)

Though over population is a worldwide problem but still in some countries population is below the required rate which is also a serious issue as in those countries less people means less manpower to support and work for the development of that country. Over Population is definitely harmful for any country in many ways but it has some positive side too. Increased population leads to increase in manpower for a country where more people are easily found helping in the development of different sectors.

How Population Growth is Good for a Country?

Controlled population growth is also required for growth of the economy of any country. Let’s see how:

If population of a country is constant or is not increasing, it will create more old age people than the young people. That country will not have enough manpower to do the job. Japan is the best example as there government is motivating to increase the birth rate in an attempt to minimize the age gap. Second best example can be taken of China as 25 years ago here government implemented the rule of one child in a family. After few years when the growth rate of China started reducing and was having less young manpower, then recently they lifted this ban and allowed parents to have two children instead of one.

Population increase will create more manpower and more consumption of items required for basic / luxurious. More consumption means more industry growth to cater that consumption. More industry requires more manpower. Money circulation will improve and cost of living of the country will improve. People in the country will earn money and will educate their kids so that they can do work for the growth of country. Basically it all depends on the controlled growth of population. If population growth is higher than required, it will create problem of unemployment, poverty etc.

Over Population is always has negative impact on a country’s growth but controlled pollution growth is also required for a country to achieve success in many ways. Whether resources may be limited for over populated countries but extra manpower is definitely required for generating extra resources and making new inventions.

Essay on Population Growth in India – Essay 4 (500 Words)

Population is the count of the number of persons living in a particular region. It has reached an alarming rate in some countries. Over population can be due to many causes like illiteracy, improper knowledge of family planning, migration from different places.

India is the Second Highest Populated Country in World

According to survey this whole World is inhabited by around 7.6 billion humans among which a major part 17% of the total population of world is residing in India i.e. more than 125 crore people. Adding to this around 21% Indians are below poverty level as a result of uncontrolled population growth. This may lead to disastrous effects in future and thus it is required to control it in order to live a safe and healthy life.

According to Census of 2011, India’s population has crossed 121 crore and it is at second position after the China in the world. Presently this figure may have crossed 130 crore and in near future, it will surpass that of China China. India is facing a big challenge as population growth. It is adversely affecting India’s economical condition and also responsible for poverty and low living standard of people.

Government has to spend more to provide the basic things at the subsidized rate to cater to the massive population of below poverty line (BPL) consumers. As Government is providing subsidy on basic items, it is left with a minimal amount to be used in, developmental projects aiding to the growth in economy. Government has the fewer amounts to spend on social services such as education, hospital, housing, infrastructure etc which are essentially required for a progressive country. Therefore, a planned growth of our economy needs some effective check on population explosion.

Illiteracy is the Major Cause of over-Population

Illiteracy is the main cause in India for the population growth. People living below poverty line (BPL) are not aware of the consequence of this population growth owe to their illiteracy. People think that more children mean they will earn more money for the family without realizing its impact. Sometimes parents desire boy as they think that he will popular his name and family name. Sometimes they give birth to 3-4 girl children in the desire of single boy.

How Overpopulation causes Unemployment

Overpopulation is the main cause for the unemployment in India. We can see that for any examination or vacancy, millions applications are received. It increases the competition and sometimes people use the bribe to get the job. It also increases the corruption in the system which is India’s growing concern.

Role of Government for Controlling Population in India

Government has taken various initiatives to educate the people about the benefits of family planning. Some major steps are noted here:

• Government has amended the law and fixed the minimum age for marriage of boy and girl.
• Government is creating awareness among people about the importance of family planning, equality of boys and girls, by various advertisements on TV, posters in village etc.
• Government is promoting the education of child by taking minimum fees, providing free mid-day meal, free uniform, books etc.

To make a country developed and powerful every citizen of that country need to take step on his own end apart from blaming on others. Over population may be the biggest cause for the destruction of a nation. We must find out effective solutions to the problem in order to achieve success as a Nation.

Long Essay on Causes, Effects, Solutions of Population Growth – Essay 5 (600 Words)

At present situation the problem of overpopulation comes under the category of global crisis which is growing day by day and with each passing second. This essay is specially written for understanding the issues its causes, its affects and most importantly the solution.

Over Population: Causes, Effects and Solutions

Over population means an increase in the number of people in an area than the number, the resources of that particular area can sustain. Many causes are behind this problem some are:

Causes of Population Growth

• Growth rate of population is higher in developing countries. Reason for this increase is mainly due to lack of knowledge of family planning. Mostly people who are contributing for population growth are illiterate and living below of poverty line. They are also getting their child marrying at an early age without understanding its implication.
• Mostly people come from the rural areas to urban areas/city for the job opportunities or employment and improvement in life style. It creates imbalance in city and shortage of resources.
• Improvement in medical technology/treatment reduces the mortality rate for many serious diseases. A lot of chronic diseases or deadly viruses such as measles, small pox are being treated with the improvement in medical services.
• With the improvement in medical science, it has become possible for couple who are unable to conceive, to undergo fertility treatment methods and have their own babies. Moreover, due to awareness, people go to the hospital for routine checkups and delivery, which are safer for the mother and baby.
• As population increases, consumption of basic need such as food and water will also increase. However Earth can produce a limited amount of water and food, which is lesser in comparison to consumption, leading to an increase in prices.
• Forests are depleting to cater the growth of urbanization that is affecting animals in the forest, causing pollution and imbalance in ecology. Natural resources are depleting very fast due to overuse of coal, oil and natural gas etc. It is creating serious effects on our environment.
• With the increase in population, number of vehicles and industries has increased significantly; badly affecting the quality of air. Rise in amount of release of greenhouse gases causing global warming, which causes melting of ice from iceberg and glaciers. Changing climate patterns, rise in sea level are few of the consequences that we might have to face due to environmental pollution.
• Overpopulation has increased the acts of violence and aggression as people are competing with each other for getting resources and achieving good lifestyle.

Solutions to Protect Population Growth

• Developed countries are not facing problem of overpopulation as people in develop countries are educated and they are aware of consequences of having more kids. While in developing countries, people are not well educated and have no proper idea about family planning. If the education improves then they will understand disadvantage of having more than one or two children.
• In slum areas government has continuously provided some awareness programs to make understand families about the hard life they will have to face with four or five or more children. They also guide them about family planning and efficient birth control.
• Government should impose some restrictions/hard method to control the number of children per couple. Government should also provide some incentives or tax exemption to curb overpopulation.

To live a better life every family need to have proper family planning in manner to provide their kids complete nutritious food, proper shelter, best education and other important resources. A country can only get success when its citizens are healthy and live a happy and content life. Thus controlled population is the key to the success for every Country in the World.

Related Information:

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Despite Strong Growth, South Asia Remains Vulnerable to Shocks

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2024 —Growth in South Asia is expected to be strong at 6.0% in 2024, driven mainly by robust growth in India and recoveries in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But persistent structural challenges threaten to undermine sustained growth, hindering the region’s ability to create jobs and respond to climate shocks, says the World Bank in its twice-a-year regional outlook.

According to Jobs for Resilience , the latest South Asia Development Update released today, South Asia is expected to remain the fastest-growing region in the world for the next two years, with growth projected to be 6.1% in 2025.

But this strong outlook is deceptive, says the report. For most countries, growth is still below pre-pandemic levels and is reliant on public spending. At the same time, private investment growth has slowed sharply in all South Asian countries and the region is not creating enough jobs to keep pace with its rapidly increasing working-age population.

“South Asia’s growth prospects remain bright in the short run, but fragile fiscal positions and increasing climate shocks are dark clouds on the horizon,” said Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia . “ To make growth more resilient, countries need to adopt policies to boost private investment and strengthen employment growth.”

South Asia’s working-age population growth has exceeded that in other developing country regions. And, while employment growth has also increased, it is well short of working-age population growth. As a result, the share of the employed working-age population has been declining since 2000 and is low. In 2023, the employment ratio for South Asia was 59%, compared to 70% in other emerging market and developing economy regions. It is the only region where the share of working-age men who are employed fell over the past two decades, and the region with the lowest share of working-age women who are employed.

“South Asia is failing right now to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. This is a missed opportunity,” said Franziska Ohnsorge, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia . “If the region employed as large a share of the working-age population as other emerging markets and developing economies, its output could be 16 % higher.”

These weak employment trends are concentrated in non-agricultural sectors and in part reflect challenging institutional and economic environments that have held back the growth of firms and businesses. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking employment growth and robust private investment. Stronger job creation would also help households, which have few effective options, to adapt to climate change.

The report recommends a range of policies to spur firm growth and boost employment including increasing trade openness and access to finance, improving business climates and institutions, removing financial sector restrictions, improving education, and removing restrictions on women’s economic activity. And these measures would also help lift growth and productivity and free up space for public investments in climate adaptation.

Country Outlooks

In Bangladesh , output is expected to rise by 5.7% in FY24/25, with high inflation and restrictions on trade and foreign exchange constraining economic activity. Bhutan ’s economy is expected to grow by 5.7% in FY24/25, supported by higher electricity production alongside growth in mining, manufacturing, and tourism. In India , which accounts for the bulk of the region’s economy, output growth is expected to reach 7.5% in FY23/24 before returning to 6.6% over the medium term, with activity in services and industry expected to remain robust. Output growth in Maldives is expected to be 4.7% in 2024, a half-percentage point downgrade from previous forecasts as tourists shift from high-end resorts toward lower-cost guesthouses. In Nepal , output is expected to grow by 4.6% in FY24/25 as hydropower exports are expected to pick up but recovery outside the hydropower sector is expected to remain slow. Following the contraction in FY22/23, Pakistan ’s economy is expected to grow by 2.3% in FY24/25 as business confidence improves. In Sri Lanka , output growth is expected to strengthen to 2.5% in 2025, with modest recoveries in reserves, remittances, and tourism.

How will Houston's growing population fare with public transit? New METRO board to address problem

T he future of public transportation in Harris County will lie in the hands of a new METRO board, as Houston City Council plans to vote on four members nominated by Mayor John Whitmire during their Wednesday meeting.

The new board will need to address the population growth in the Greater Houston area over the next five to 10 years and how our transit systems must adjust to accommodate commuter needs.

Dr. Bruce Race, who teaches architecture at the University of Houston, explained that Houston's bus system used to follow the hub-spoke model of the historic streetcar system. Many routes went through downtown, but as the city grew in pocketed areas and freeway intersections, the bus system returned to an extensive grid system.

"METRO has made big adjustments. Will they need to make adjustments to the routes again? I think it will happen in the first and last-mile services," Race said.

RELATED: Commuting concerns rise after Houston Mayor John Whitmire nominates 4 new METRO board members

Ed Emmett, a fellow in energy and transportation policy at Rice University, said METRO has seen fewer people using its buses and light rail systems in downtown Houston after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We've seen office vacancy rates rise dramatically. Major companies have moved out to the suburbs to places like the Energy Corridor, the Woodlands, and Katy," said Emmett. "The economic situation of people who don't have their own transportation has moved from just the inner city, now out to some of the suburbs."

So, how does the Greater Houston region need to respond to make sure our public transportation systems adequately accommodate that growth?

Emmett believes it needs to go beyond adding more lanes in traffic for drivers. He anticipates most of the population growth in the next decade will be in surrounding counties such as Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria. Therefore, he thinks METRO will need to collaborate and connect with transportation agencies in surrounding counties to develop creative solutions.

Some examples he gave include offering a carpool-like shuttle for long routes often traveled by people commuting for work and implementing transportation options that don't require permanent infrastructure like light rails.

According to Race, they must also develop options that incentivize commuters to leave their car at home.

"If we want people to get out of their cars and off the freeways, they still have to provide convenient transportation for people who are going to work every day," Race said.

READ MORE: METRO unveils autonomous shuttle and electric vehicle: 'Next phase of our strategic plan'

Race said the projected growth for Harris County is about 2 million people by 2040. As more high-density projects are built within the city of Houston, he believes there will be a need to make these neighborhoods more walkable and supportive of public transportation.

"We mapped out transportation poverty in Houston and looked at different population needs. There are certain households that are impacted by transportation costs more than others. That's a map that doesn't always correspond with where we're seeing new development," Race said.

To achieve equity, public transportation agencies may factor in climate change impacts and evaluate how that plays into their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint.

"Some routes have a heightened amount of fuel use per ride. By electrifying those routes, it reduces the diesel health and environmental impact on some of these communities," Race said.

Race predicts that in the future, we could see METRO make their 30 park-and-ride sites into transit hubs for different neighborhoods in the region. He also anticipates that we'll see changes in how the public uses and views transportation.

"We're not going to be seeing the traditional auto ownership, bus ridership, or electric scooter/bike rentals. All this to me is going to change," Race said.

For more on this story, follow Rosie Nguyen on Facebook , X and Instagram .

Problems of Population Growth in China Essay

China is the world’s most densely populated country and makes up one-fifth of today’s world’s total population. The country’s large population, rapidly changing demographic patterns and future uncertainties has caught the attention of policy makers worldwide (Riley 3).

The country’s rapidly growing economy and its demographics are a proof that China will be in the global spotlight for years. China has endured several socio-economic challenges over the past few decades; however, most of the problems that the country faces today are related to recent demographic changes.

A census taken recently has revealed that population increased to 1.34 billion in 2010 as compared to 1.27 billion in 2000. Annual population growth rate averaged to 0.57% in the past 10 years. This is a significant decrease compared to 1.07% for the previous ten years. The census statistics also revealed the emergence of a rapidly aging population. People over the age of 60 years comprised 13.3% of the total population in 2010.

This is an increase in comparison to 10.3% for the year 2000. Part of the population under the age of 14 years was 16.6%, a decline down from 23% in the year 2000 (United Nations Population Fund 18).

The Chinese government has been implementing a one child policy law since 1979. This law limits the number of children that a married couple can have to one child. It was a policy created to mitigate environmental and socio-economic problems in the Country (Riley 9).

Authorities concerned with population matters claim that prevention of over 400 million births occurred since the implementation of the one child policy. The policy makers have further claimed that the law has led to decreased pollution levels and decreased pressure on global food supplies.

In spite of the preventing millions of births, the one child policy has created immense socio-economic challenges for China and caused irremediable interference in the structure of Population Growth in China. A projection by The United Nations Population Division has revealed that the population of people above 60 years old in China will be 31% of the country’s total population by 2050 (United Nations Population Fund 25).

This is a challenge for the country’s policy makers. It has already been evidenced that the constantly growing percentage of the elderly in China is straining the country’s resources.

Over the past decades, family compositions and marriages in China suffered due to changes in government policies, reduced fertility rates and marriage laws. China just like other Asian nations has a custom for son predilection.

This can be observed with the followers of Confucianism who openly prefer sons over daughters. They consider a son to be more helpful in the farms than a daughter. They believe that having a son is better because he will provide monetary support to his parents later in life when they retire.

These Confucian beliefs and the one child law have created a shortage of females in the Country. The male to female ratio in China is the highest in the world and stands at 1.13 male to 1 female. Projections show that China will have approximately 30 million more males than females in China by 2020; this may lead to social volatility (Riley 22).

Vast demographic changes in China’s recent history affect a country’s development and operational policies. Considering China’s economic, political and demographic importance to the world, the country’s future population is of immense significance worldwide (Riley 32). Predicting what exactly will happen in China over the next decades seems to be impossible.

However, the effects of the government policies on reproduction, family size, fertility rates and marriages will almost certainly continue to affect the country in the predictable future.

Problems brought about by reduced population growth rates and the one child policy, for example, a dwindling labor force; are sufficient reasons for policy makers in China to be concerned about the Country’s future development and social status in the world.

Works Cited

Riley, Nancy 2004, China’s Population:New Trends and Challenges , Population Bulletin 59, no. 2. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau. Web.

United Nations Population Fund. Report on Population Dynamics in the LDCs: Challenges and Opportunities for Development and Poverty Reduction . Web.

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