Population Growth and It Effects

Weeks, J (1989) suggests that demographic dynamics is the change in population in terms of size composition, age structure, and urbanization. This includes the causes and consequences of migration, fertility and mortality. These dynamics are different from the past since each and every country experiences changes in terms of living condition, number of people born and people who died in that particular time. This essay will discuss the current size of the population, how does it effect the economic development, the impact on the standard of living and also focus on population growth as the contemporary concern by highlighting the past and present trends. However other arguments will be presented, such as theories that support the fact that population growth has an impact in economic development.

According to Weeks, J (1999:13) the rapid acceleration in growth after 1950 was due almost entirely to the declines in the death rates that accompanied industrial revolution. The industrial revolution changed the way people behave and believe, because population of the past had high birth and death rates as it was governed by tradition, but the massive economic changes brought by industrial revolution forced societies to alter traditional institution. The industrial revolution which fuelled economic growth in Europe was partly caused by population growth. Hence the assertion by Boserup (1949) that a good mix of population growth and technical progress can lead to economic growth (Crook, 1997). The industrial revolution as mentioned above was trigged by population growth and the invention of industrial machinery in Europe (Kreis, 2001). The industrial revolution came with the introduction of machine, which increase the development and improve the standard of living. This implies that during traditional society fertility and mortality were high but in modern or industrial society fertility and mortality are low and in between there is a demographic transition.

There has been a dramatic change in demographic dynamics. “We are living in a world of unprecedented demographic change. After growing very slowly for most of the human history, the world population is more than doubled in the last half century to reach 6 billion in late 1999.By 2006 it could reach 6, 7 millions. Lower mortality, longer life expectancy and young population in countries where fertility remains high all contributed to the rapid population of recent decades” (Population issues). The fertility and mortality are the reason behind the change in the size of population and which determine the population growth of the country.

As the population growth, the same rate will produce a large absolute increase in the size from year to year. In fact the age structure of the world is now sufficiently young and the population already so large, that for the next decades the same number of people will be added each decade despite the fact that the rate of growth is expected to decline (Weeks 1999:14). According to Malthus (1976) Population if unchecked increased in a geometric ratio and subsistence increase only in an arithmetic ratio. This is due to the fact that population size is not controlled if there are no checks on population growth; human beings would multiply in exponentially number, filling the millions of world in few thousand years. Population is changing overtime and it can be quantify by the address of economic and development changes.

The population size in different countries is reflecting by fact that, it a developed or less developed country and in that simply way population growth can be easily determined. In most countries, about 5 to 10 have a problem of high fertility with low mortality rates. From the report of 2006, the size of the world population is increasing, the most populous or developed countries in the world presents the total population which is different from each year. Countries which are presented to account for about half of the world population, such countries include; China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria and Japan (DSW, 2006). In south and South America, countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh., India and Indonesia are referred as populous and are growing faster with high birth rate. India is a second country that has 1, 12 billion of population which comprises about 17 percent of the world population and the annual rates of 2, 1 percent (DSW, 2006). The government of India believed that, by implementation of contraception and abortion, the fertility will decline. Malthus argue that preventative checks to limits birth, such as abstinence, contraception and abortion are not acceptable but he referred the moral restrain as acceptable in preventing birth.

In East Asia, countries such as China and Japan referred as developed country, but China is the most populous countries in the world with more then 1, 32 billion populations, which comprises about 20 percent of the population (DSW, 2006). The rapid population growth of china lead detrimental to acceleration of capital accumulation, hinder the effort to quickly raise the scientific and cultural level of the whole nation and it detrimental to improvement of standard of living. According to Marxist each society at its point in history has its own law of population that determines the consequences of population growth. Marxist and Engels believed that population growth was a product of capitalism and that in socialist society either there would be enough resources per person or else people would be motivated to keep families small Weeks, (1999). This means China has a high fertility rates with mortality rates in such a way that government has adopted Marxist theory, by implementing one child policy to reduce population growth, organize the size and the number of population. Despite Marx’s denial of population problem, the Marxist government in China is dealing with one by rejecting its Marxist-Leninist roots and embracing instead one of the most aggressive and coercive government programs ever launched to reduce fertility through restraints on marriages (the Malthusian solution), contraception (the neo-Malthusian solution) and abortion (Weeks, 1999)

Japan is the contradictory of China because it has low fertility and low mortality rates and has a population of about 128 million which comprises 2, 0 percent of the world population (DSW, 2006). Japan is in the stage where it needs women to reproduce more in order to raise the fertility rates and allow large number of people to migrate. Japan’s low mortality and fertility have produced a population in which only 16 percent are under age of 15 years and 16 percent are 60 years or older, with a forecasted rise of 26 percent aged 65 or older by the year 2025 Weeks, (1999:33). Mill was convinced that an important