essay on managing population explosion

Population Explosion Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay population explosion essay.

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

Meaning of Population Explosion

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

Causes of Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Effects of Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

Prevention of population explosion

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

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

FAQs about Population Explosion Essay

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

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

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• v.5(4); 2013

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

J. van bavel.

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

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

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

Introduction

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

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

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

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

The evolution of the world population in numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Causes of the explosion: the demographic transition

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

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

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

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

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

Scenarios for the future

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

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

Declining fertility

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

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

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

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

Child mortality, education and family planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population momentum

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

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

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

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

Consequences of the population explosion

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

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

Poverty and famine

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

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

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

Impact on the environment

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

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

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

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

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

7 Billion and counting… What is to be done?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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World Population: What Helps Explain the Explosion?

Key takeaways.

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

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

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

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

Population Growth Is Determined by Birth and Death Rates

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

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

Population Growth Rate=Birth Rate – Death Rate

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

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

SOURCE: United Nations, World Population Prospects 2022 .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death Rate Affects Age Composition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• Population Explosion Essay

Essay on Population Explosion

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

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

What is Population Explosion?

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

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

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

Causes of Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Impact Due to Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Major Effects of the High Population are as Follows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preventive Measures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FAQs on Population Explosion Essay

1) What is Population Explosion?

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

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

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

3) What are the measures to avoid population explosion?

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

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

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

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

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

Population Explosion Essay

500+ words population explosion essay.

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

Major Causes of Population Explosion

1. increase in birth rate.

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

2. Decrease in Death Rate

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

3. Early Marriage

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

4. Religious and Social Reasons

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

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

6. Standard of Living

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

7. Illiteracy

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

Effects of Population Explosion

1. the problem of unemployment.

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

2. More Pressure on Land

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

3. Environmental Degradation

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

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions on Population Explosion Essay

How can population explosion be controlled.

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

Which country has the highest population?

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

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

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

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How to manage Africa's population explosion

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According to the United Nations, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population (900 million currently) is expected to be more than five times larger than Europe’s in 2100. By then, Nigeria alone will have a population of 700 million people, 40% more than the combined populations of the European Union's 27 member states. If such a profound shift is difficult to take in, Hans Rosling has some appealing, easy-to-digest video guides to long-term global population increase. He explains it with high-technology here , with Ikea boxes  here  and with pebbles here .

Belatedly, the world is waking up to the huge strains a demographic explosion on this scale would create. A group of leading scientists  from developed and developing nations are calling on Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to take urgent action on population control. Next month in London, an international summit  organized by the Gates Foundation and the UK Government will try to raise $4bn to secure access to family planning for 120 million women. These moves are encouraging - for too long, the divisive subject of overpopulation has been taboo. With Africa's population spiraling, concerted effort is needed to head off a Malthusian nightmare. Let’s examine four key drivers of Africa’s current population explosion.

1. Improved child mortality rates. As The Economist said recently , Parts of Africa are experiencing some of the biggest falls in child mortality ever seen, anywhere.

2. Family planning (lack of). The WHO says  22% of African married women are at risk of an unplanned pregnancy but are not using contraception – in Asia, the figure is 9%.

3. Female education (lack of). Not enough girls attend secondary school. UNICEF  says that an extra year of schooling for girls reduces fertility rates by 5 to 10 per cent.

4. Behavioural economics. Particularly in rural communities, children are seen as cheap labour and as a kind of insurance policy.

For population growth to be sustainable, coordinated action is needed to amplify the first trend while rectifying the other three. There's still an enormous way to go on child mortality. A report  from Save the Children says newborn deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are falling by a measly 1.5 percent per year, and that 75% of deaths could be prevented by the universal provision of cheap, effective interventions like Kangaroo Mother Care, which wraps babies and mothers together to provide warmth. If poor families are confident their babies will survive, they feel under less pressure to produce another quickly. Everywhere in the world, better child mortality rates = smaller families.

Regarding family planning and education for girls, these are two areas where policy-makers, aid agencies, NGOs and the private sector all have a part to play in achieving progress. If they work together, Babatunde Osotimehin, the former Nigerian Health Minister who runs the United Nations Population Fund, says that " rapid change " can be delivered on birthrates. In rural communities, joint public/private action is needed to help agricultural systems become more efficient. By creating stable markets, the most vulnerable can be lifted out of poverty.

Finally, as Africa urbanizes, the main emphasis must be on the need to create jobs in cities, as our recent Future Cities  conference in Lagos discussed. When you lift city dwellers out of poverty and into the middle-class, they tend to make similar choices about family sizes: they have fewer kids.

Action is therefore needed on a number of fronts, and from a number of actors, if the 21st century population explosion is to be managed sustainably. It won't happen by itself; it's up to everyone to keep this issue high on the international agenda.

If you’re interested in population issues and would like to comment on this article, please do - your opinion will be most welcome.

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Fixing Asia's food system

The urgency for change in Asia's food system comes largely from the fact that Asian populations are growing, urbanising and changing food tastes too quickly for many of the regions’ food systems to cope with. Asian cities are dense and are expected to expand by 578m people by 2030. China, Indonesia and India will account for three quarters of these new urban dwellers.

To study what are the biggest challenges for change, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) surveyed 400 business leaders in Asia’s food industry. According to the respondents, 90% are concerned about their local food system’s ability to meet food security needs, but only 32% feel their organisations have the ability to determine the success of their food systems. Within this gap is a shifting balance of responsibility between the public and private sectors, a tension that needs to and can be strategically addressed.

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• School Education /

Essay on Population Explosion for Students in English

• Updated on  
• Mar 8, 2024

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

Table of Contents

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

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

Long Essay on Population Explosion

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

Causes of Population Explosion

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

High Birth Rate

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

Reduced Mortality Rates

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

High Level of Illiteracy

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

Religious and Social Factors

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

Early Marriage

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

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

Gender Inequality

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

Also Read: Essay on Peer Pressure for Students

Impact of Population Explosion

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

Depletion of Natural Resources

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

Deforestation

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

Increased Unemployment and Poverty

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

Increased Air and Water Pollution

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

Waste Generation

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

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

Strategies and Policies to Address Population Explosion

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

Promotion of Family Planning Programmes

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

Education and Women Empowerment

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

Enhanced Healthcare Facilities

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

Public Awareness Campaigns

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

Global Cooperation

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

10 Lines Essay on Population Explosion

Here is a 10-line essay on population explosion.

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

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

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

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

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Essay On Population Explosion

Table of Contents

Short Essay On Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Long Essay On Population Explosion

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Student Essays

Essay on Population Explosion- Impacts & Ways to Control it

An increase in population is one of threatening issues of developing world. The south Asian countries are quite vulnerable to the dangers of population explosions. The following short & Long Essay on Population Explosion talks about meaning and concept of population explosion, what are the impacts of increase in population and further how the population increase can be contained or stopped. This essay is very helpful for children and students for their school exams.

Essay on Population Explosion- Meaning, Concept, Impacts & Ways how to Control it

Population Explosion refers to the rapid and dramatic increase in world population that has taken place over the last few hundred years. In a short period of time, the world’s population has tripled, and is now close to 7 billion people. The sheer size of the world’s population is having a profound impact on our planet, and its resources.

The term “population explosion” was first used in the early 1960s, when the world’s population reached 3 billion. At that time, people were becoming increasingly alarmed at the rate at which the world’s population was growing. In the 50 years since then, the world’s population has doubled, and is now estimated to be over 7 billion.

>>>> Read Also:   ” Essay on Violence against Women “

Impacts of Population Explosion:

The rapid growth of the world’s population is having a number of negative impacts on our planet. Here are some of the key impacts:

Food and water shortages: The world’s population is growing faster than the ability of our planet to produce food and fresh water. This is causing food and water shortages in many parts of the world.

Climate change: The growth of the world’s population is causing increased greenhouse gas emissions, which is contributing to climate change.

Environmental degradation: The growing population is putting increasing pressure on our planet’s resources, leading to deforestation, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity.

Social and economic instability: Rapid population growth can lead to social and economic instability, as people compete for scarce resources.

Poverty and inequality: The poorest people in the world are the most affected by population growth, as they have the least access to food, water and other resources.

Solutions to Population Explosion:

There is no one “solution” to the problem of population explosion, but there are a number of things that can be done to mitigate its impact. These include:

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: This can be done through measures such as increasing energy efficiency, and promoting the use of renewable energy sources.

Improving food production: This can be done through initiatives such as organic farming, and improving access to irrigation and fertilizers.

Reducing poverty and inequality: This can be done through measures such as providing access to education and health care, and supporting economic development.

Promoting family planning: This can be done through initiatives such as increasing access to contraception, and sex education.

>>> Read Also: “ Essay on My Aim in Life ”

The world’s population is growing at an alarming rate, and this is having a profound impact on our planet. While there is no one “solution” to the problem of population growth, there are a number of things that can be done to mitigate its impact. It is essential that we take action now to reduce the negative impacts of population growth, and ensure a sustainable future for our planet.

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Solutions to overpopulation and what you can do

| February 27, 2019 | Leave a Comment

Item Link: Access the Resource

Date of Publication: February 22, 2019

Author(s): The Overpopulation Project

Here at The Overpopulation Project, we try to keep a positive outlook. Although many environmental trends are grim, there exist clear paths forward toward a more sustainable world: one where people steward resources for the future and share habitat and resources generously with other species.

Recently, a correspondent wrote challenging us to identify  solutions  to the demographic and environmental problems we write about. We appreciate the reminder to remain forward looking and in response share the ideas below. Obviously, no one person or organization can cover all these efforts. But each of us can do something and together we can create a sustainable world.

These are personal and policy suggestions that we and others study. Some points are obvious, others fairly well established, but all need more research. If you are a scientist or scholar, one of the most important actions to take is to address population matters in your research, or join other researchers who are doing so.

What suggestions would you add or take off this list? Which ideas need further research? We would love to hear from you!

Actions on the individual level

• Have fewer children! One is good, two is enough – read more  here
• Consider adoption!
• Read, educate yourself about population issues – read more  here
• Reduce your personal consumption: go vegan, limit flying, share your household with others, and  more
• Educate your teenage child(ren) about sex and contraception early, without taboos
• Spread your knowledge and concern among your friends and family, raise awareness about overpopulation on social media – read more  here
• Donate to family planning programs in your own or other countries – for example to  International Planned Parenthood ,  FP2020  or another equally deserving organization
• Vote for politicians who acknowledge the detrimental impacts of population growth and propose political solutions

Actions on the community level

• Join local environmental groups, encouraging them to “connect the dots” between population and the environment and address population issues
• Write opinion pieces for local newspapers, contact local media sources requesting more reporting on population issues – create demand!
• Municipalities should set growth management boundaries, discouraging sprawl development on their fringes
• Towns and cities should purchase surrounding lands, or the development rights to such lands, in order to set them aside as nature preserves and open space
• City councils should pass resolutions accepting limits to growth, and directing their national governments to develop policies to stabilize or reduce national populations

Actions on the national level

In high fertility developing countries, governments should …  

• Generously fund family planning programs
• Make modern contraception legal, free and available everywhere, even in remote areas
• Improve health care to reduce infant and child mortality
• Restrict child marriage and raise the legal age of marriage (minimum 18 years)
• Introduce obligatory education as long as possible (minimum until the age of 16), and generously fund the necessary infrastructure

In low fertility developed countries, governments should …  

• Embrace rather than fight aging and shrinking societies – read more  here
• Reorganize pensions and other socio-economic systems to accommodate aging societies
• Eliminate baby bonuses, government funding for fertility treatments, and other incentives to raise fertility rates
• Reduce immigration numbers (at least to a level that will stabilize national populations, preferably to one that will lower them) – read our blog  here
• Reduce resource consumption and pollution through an effective mix of taxes, incentives and regulations

I n every country, governments should …  

• Empower women, assuring equal rights, treatment and opportunities for both genders
• Provide information and access to reproductive health care, including all types of low cost, safe, effective contraception – read more  here
• Make sterilization free, for men and women, or at least covered under all healthcare plans
• Legalize abortion without restrictions or social stigma – read our blog  here
• Integrate family planning and safe motherhood programs into primary health care systems
• Make population and environmental issues and sex education part of the basic educational curriculum
• Disincentivize third and further children non-coercively, by limiting government support to the first two children
• Create a national population policy built around an  optimal population size , and work to achieve it
• Set aside half the national landscape free from intensive development and dedicated to biodiversity protection – read more  here

Actions on the global level

• Make “ending population growth” one of the UN  Sustainable Development Goals  – read our blog  here
• Greatly increase the amount of foreign aid going to family planning – learn more  here
• Change the current foreign aid distribution, giving more support for health and education, while ending international military aid – read more  here
• Global religious leaders should approve modern contraception methods and forcefully reject a fatalistic view of procreation – read more  here
• Financially support media programs designed to change social norms to bolster family planning, best example is  Population Media Center
• Hold a new  global population conference , the first in twenty-five years, to reaffirm the ecological need to limit human numbers and the basic human right to family planning
• Connect family planning to international environmental and development funding; e.g., include family planning in the  Green Climate Fund
• Create a new global treaty to end population growth, with all countries choosing population targets every half decade with a plan on how to achieve them (similar to the  NDC  format) – read our blog  here
• Create an online platform similar to the  ClimateWatch  platform, where visitors can see countries’ goals, plans and achievements to date

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Population Explosion Essay - 100, 200, 500 Words

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

100 Words Essay on Population Explosion

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

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

200 Words Essay on Population Explosion

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

Impact of Population Explosion

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

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

500 Words Essay on Population Explosion

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

Causes of Population Explosion

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

Impacts of Population Explosion

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

Examples of Population Explosion

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

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

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

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

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Population Explosion Essay For Students and Children in 1000 Words

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

Table of Contents

Population Explosion Essay (1000 Words)

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

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

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

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

Population Explosion Meaning

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

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

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

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

Population Explosion in India

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Causes of Population Explosion

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

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

Some unique reasons are there that explain these bizarre conditions: 

1. Falling Mortality Rate

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

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

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

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

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

2. Underutilised Contraception 

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

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

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

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

3. Lack of Female Education

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

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

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

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

Effects & Consequences of Population Explosion

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

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

Here are some major consequences that overpopulation can generate:

1. Increased Conflicts

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

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

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

2. Ecological Degradation 

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

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

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

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

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

3. Higher Risk of Pandemics and Disasters 

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

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

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

Population Explosion Control Tips

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

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

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

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

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

Population Explosion and Birth Control

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

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

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

The methods come with the following steps to conduct:

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

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

The following methods are the safest:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• Van Bavel J 1

Facts, Views & Vision in Obgyn , 01 Jan 2013 , 5(4): 281-291 PMID: 24753956  PMCID: PMC3987379

Abstract 

Free full text , the world population explosion: causes, backgrounds and projections for the future, j. van bavel.

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

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

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

• Introduction

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

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

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

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

• The evolution of the world population in numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Causes of the explosion: the demographic transition

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

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

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

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

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

• Scenarios for the future

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

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

• Declining fertility

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

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

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

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

• Child mortality, education and family planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Population momentum

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

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

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

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

• Consequences of the population explosion

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

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

• Poverty and famine

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

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

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

• Impact on the environment

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

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

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

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

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

• 7 Billion and counting… What is to be done?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Population Explosion: Causes and Consequences

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

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Population Explosion | Meaning, Reasons & Effects

There has been a rapid growth of the human population in the last century due to the difference in the birth rate and the mortality rates. In the next one decade, the population of the world is expected to grow by another billion. The impact of uncontrolled population growth impacts not just a section of the society, but the entire population suffers from its infinite impact on the economy and the environment. With an understanding of the population growth patterns, we can try to understand the contributing factors and how to prepare for the future.

The human overpopulation or population explosion is caused when the ecological footprint of humans in a particular region crosses the actual carrying limit of the place with regards to space and the resources available. A place is considered to be overpopulated if the existing population in the area can no longer be maintained due to the constant depletion of the non-renewable resources or the natural resources leading to a degradation of the environment. However, a change in the lifestyle and the consumption and the use of renewable resources can help reverse the effects of population explosion without an actual or substantial decrease in the population.

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Reasons Behind Population Explosion & Importance Of Population Control

Population explosion can occur due to the increase in the birth rates, a substantial decrease in the mortality rates, immigration or a major depletion of resources creating an unsustainable biome not suitable for habitation. Population explosion can occur in a small region or a very sparsely populated area too even if the available resources in the region are very limited or non-existent and can sustain a very small number of people. Population control is necessary in order to maintain the quality of life and meet the carrying capacity of a region else it can lead to starvation and death causing a sudden and steep population decline.

The population of the world has increased exponentially in the past few decades. Around the year 1810, the population of the world was 1 billion. Just about a century later the population doubled to 2 billion, it increased to 4 billion in the next 45 years (1975) and by January 2019 the current population has reached 7.7 billion. The carrying capacity of the earth is 4 billion to 16 billion. It can be said that population explosion or human overpopulation may have already occurred on the Earth. According to the recent estimates, the world population would have reached somewhere around 10-11 billion between the years 2014 and 2050.

Causes of Population Explosion

Few of the causes of population explosions are discussed below

Technological advancement  has been a major contributor to the high growth rate of population. With the improvement in technology the quality of life improved and so did the population in every phase of advancement. The initial tool making revolution helped the primitive hunters to not only provide more food but also give the security that a family needs against external predators and climatic conditions to sustain. This was followed by the agricultural revolution in which the hunter and the food gatherer turned into a farmer and lived in settlements. With the onset of the industrial revolution and the use of machinery and fertilizers, there was an abundance of food which further helped in enhancing the growth of population.

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With the improvement of medical facilities  and the eradication of many diseases, human population thrived as the mortality rates dropped and the birth rates increased. With the invention of the contraceptives, there was a significant decline in the population growth in the developed countries. However, in the poorer countries where the women had no knowledge of birth control or had no means to access any form of contraception the population continued to grow. Economic backwardness  has now become one of the main factors that have lead to an increasing population.

Another contributing factor to the increasing population is the higher life expectancy  of the aged population. Although the birth rate may have declined the mortality rates have also declined significantly due to the availability of better medical facilities. This has also led to a growing concern as the major population in many countries has started aging and the percentage of the population capable of labor has declined. This means that even a minimal growth in the birth rate is actually contributing to the population growth.

Effects of population explosion

The effect of population explosion is multi-layered. It not only impacts the environment and the availability of resources but it also impacts the health of individuals within the population.

Natural resources are depleting constantly with the increasing demand and consumption. Fossil fuel which is the primary source of energy that drives the technology-driven world is fast depleting. Which poses a very important question on what do we depend on once this natural resource has exhausted. Although there is growing awareness on the use of renewable energy like biofuels, solar, wind and tidal energy and others there is still a long way to go where these renewable resources can actually replace the use of fossil fuels.

With the increasing population and the rising demand, there is an increased level in the air, water and soil pollution. This is not only impacting the lives of humans but has also affected the lives of many animals resulting in the endangering of many species and the extinction of many. The high levels of pollution have resulted in contamination of water and soil that has rendered many patches of land and water bodies unfit for use. Drinking water is fast becoming inadequate to support the needs of millions of people. With the increase the demand for crops to meet the global food requirements there has been an increase in deforestation to provide for agricultural land. This has led to a significant contraction in the biodiversity of many regions. Deforestation, on the other hand, has serious repercussions on the climatic condition of the planet. It leads to an increased level of carbon dioxide which is one of the contributing factors to global warming.

Apart from the environmental effects there is a huge socio-economic impact as the countries resources become inadequate to support the needs of a growing population. Countries with high population have high unemployment percentages as well which means that a greater number of people live in poverty, incapable to support the needs for sanitation and health care. It not only means malnutrition but it also leads to increased incidences of epidemics and pandemics.

Living conditions become increasingly compact and crowded which is detrimental to a thriving society and good mental health. It breeds crime and antagonism and higher mortality rates. Overpopulation impacts the entire biosphere as it impacts the environment in multiple levels.

Combating Population Explosion

The most important way to combat a steady rise in the population is education and empowerment . The impacts of a growing population need to be brought to the attention of all. It is not only the question of available resources and its consumption, but it is also a concern about providing a quality life to the current and future generations. Birth control and family planning is the first step that needs to be taken to ensure a gradual decline in the growth rate of the population. About 40% of worldwide pregnancies are unintentional which can be avoided by the use of oral contraceptives or other birth control devices like condoms or intrauterine device.

About 350 million women in the developing countries of the world are unaware of birth control options or the possibilities for family planning. Educating these women and making access to the birth control devices affordable can help in not only controlling the population growth but also help to improve the quality of life for these women and their children. Many countries promote small size families limiting the number of children per family to two or fewer. Male sterilization is also promoted to help in birth regulations. This has been made effective in a number of countries and a positive impact has been seen in the growth rate of the population of those countries.

Urbanization  is another proposed method to help combat over population. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), urbanization may be an effective option for controlling the population growth. It suggested that cities tend to concentrate human activity with a limited area thus substantially reducing the breadth of environmental damage that is caused by a growing population. This can be achieved by efficient urban planning and proper maintenance of city services assuring an acceptable quality of life to its dwellers.

Though still a distant dream many scientists have proposed the possibility of Extraterrestrial settlement . The overpopulation on Earth can be easily combated by the use of Extraterrestrial settlements or space habitats that could support life forms. Many Scientists have suggested the use of the Asteroid belt or the Kupier belt to build the future home for humanity. Famous scientists like Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking, Gerard K. O’Neil, and K. Eric Drexter have all suggested space as a potential habitat for the human population to meet the demands for resources and land. There are many ongoing kinds of research that is looking into the possibilities of habitation in Mars, Moon and the upper layers of the atmosphere in Venus and other planets in the Solar system.

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Population Explosion Essay | A Critical Analysis | Causes | How We Can Work Together

With over 7.8 billion people on the planet, it’s no secret that we are facing a critical issue that needs immediate attention. The rapid increase in population has many negative consequences ranging from environmental degradation to social and economic challenges. Here we are providing short and long population explosion essay in English for your knowledge and information. After going through this essay, you will explore the causes and consequences of population explosion, as well as offer some solutions for how we can work together to address this pressing issue. The essay will be extremely useful in your school /college assignments where you have to write an essay, give speech or take part in a debate competition.

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What is Population Explosion?

In simple terms, population explosion is defined as the rapid increase in human population over a short period of time. The global human population has exploded in the last century, growing from 1.6 billion in 1900 to more than 7.6 billion today. This rapid growth is largely due to advancements in medical care and technology that have led to longer life spans and higher fertility rates. While the world’s population continues to grow at an alarming rate, the availability of resources is not keeping pace. This imbalance between people and resources is causing major problems around the world, including overcrowding, poverty, and environmental degradation. The term “population explosion” was first coined by British demographer Aurel Wilberforce Stott in his 1944 book The Control of Life. In it, Stott warned of the dangers of unchecked population growt h and called for measures to be taken to reduce birth rates. While his predictions about the future were somewhat exaggerated, they did bring attention to the issue of population growth and its potential impact on society. Over the next few decades, as the world’s population continued to grow rapidly, other experts began to echo Stott’s concerns. In 1968, American biologist Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, which warned of mass starvation and societal collapse if immediate action was not taken to curb population growth. Ehrlich’s book sparked a worldwide debate on the issue and helped raise awareness of the problem of overpopulation. Since then, much has been done to try to address the issue

The Causes of Population Explosion: Understanding the Factors Behind Rapid Population Growth

Advances in medicine and healthcare services:.

The world population has been growing rapidly over the past century, primarily due to advances in medicine and healthcare services. Breakthroughs in medical technology and improved access to healthcare have significantly increased life expectancy, allowing people to live longer and contributing to population growth. As more individuals survive into old age, the overall population continues to expand.

Decrease in Infant Mortality Rates:

Another important factor contributing to population explosion is the decrease in infant mortality rates. Many countries have implemented programs focused on reducing infant mortality by improving healthcare, nutrition, and sanitation. These efforts have led to more children surviving infancy and reaching adulthood, thus contributing to the overall growth of the population.

Urbanization and Migration:

Increased urbanization has played a significant role in the population explosion. As people migrate from rural areas to cities in search of better economic opportunities and improved living conditions, they often have fewer children. However, due to the sheer number of individuals migrating, the overall population in urban areas continues to increase. This migration-driven growth adds to the global population growth.

Cultural Norms and Family Planning:

Cultural norms and values can influence family planning decisions and contribute to population growth. In some cultures, having large families is considered desirable or necessary for economic reasons, social status, or traditional beliefs. These cultural factors can lead to higher fertility rates and contribute to population expansion.

Agricultural Practices and Food Production:

Improvements in agricultural practices and food distribution systems have played a significant role in sustaining larger populations. Increased food production, advancements in farming techniques, and enhanced distribution networks have helped feed growing populations. Adequate food supply has enabled more individuals to survive and thrive, further contributing to the global population growth.

The Consequences of Population Explosion: Examining the Impacts of Rapid Population Growth

Strain on resources and rising prices:.

As the population grows, the demand for resources like food, water, energy, and raw materials increases. However, the limited availability of these resources leads to scarcity, higher prices, and competition for access. This can create social and economic instability, food shortages, and conflicts over resources.

Environmental Degradation and Climate Change:

The rapid population growth contributes to environmental degradation. Deforestation, pollution, and overuse of natural resources are common consequences. These activities harm ecosystems, wildlife, and contribute to climate change. Climate change poses serious threats to the planet’s sustainability and impacts weather patterns, agriculture, and overall environmental health.

Strain on Infrastructure and Services:

The increasing population puts pressure on infrastructure such as housing, transportation, healthcare facilities, and schools. Meeting these demands becomes challenging, leading to overcrowding, inadequate services, and strain on existing infrastructure. This can result in poor living conditions, insufficient access to healthcare and education, and limited public services.

Healthcare Challenges and Limited Access:

With a growing population, healthcare systems face challenges in providing adequate services. The demand for healthcare facilities, trained professionals, and resources increases. However, limited access to quality healthcare, particularly in developing regions, can result in inadequate healthcare services, compromised public health, and higher disease burdens.

Poverty, Inequality, and Unemployment:

Population explosion can worsen poverty levels and widen socio-economic disparities. The competition for resources and jobs can lead to lower wages, unemployment, and income inequality. Marginalized communities often bear the brunt of these consequences, facing difficulties in accessing education, healthcare, and basic needs.

Urbanization Issues and Overcrowding:

As the population grows, more people move from rural areas to cities in search of better opportunities. This rapid urbanization can result in overcrowded cities, slums, and strains on urban infrastructure and services. Issues like inadequate housing, insufficient water supply, sanitation problems, and transportation challenges become more prevalent.

Education Constraints and Quality:

The increasing population creates pressure on the education system. Schools and educational institutions may struggle to accommodate the growing number of students, leading to overcrowded classrooms, lack of resources, and compromised education quality. This can hinder educational development and limit future prospects for individuals and society as a whole.

Cultural and Social Transformations:

Population explosion can bring about cultural and social changes within communities. Traditional practices, social norms, and community structures may undergo transformations as population growth influences lifestyles, values, and intergenerational dynamics. These changes can have both positive and negative impacts on societal cohesion, cultural heritage, and community well-being. To tackle the consequences of population explosion, we need to take comprehensive actions. This means managing resources in a sustainable way, preserving the environment, implementing fair socio-economic policies, investing in infrastructure, enhancing healthcare systems, and ensuring everyone has access to good education and job opportunities.

How We Can Work Together to Address Population Explosion

Education and empowerment for informed choices.

To address population explosion, education plays a crucial role. By educating people about family planning and contraception methods, individuals can make informed decisions about the timing and number of children they want. Promoting gender equality is also important, as women with higher education levels tend to have fewer children. Empowering women through education, healthcare access, and job opportunities allows them to have control over their reproductive choices.

Reducing Infant Mortality for Family Planning

Reducing infant mortality rates is a significant step in addressing population growth. When parents have confidence that their children will survive into adulthood, they tend to choose to have fewer children. Therefore, improving healthcare systems and ensuring access to quality healthcare for infants and children is crucial in encouraging family planning and population control.

Government Policies for Sustainable Population Management

Government policies can contribute to population control by implementing strategies such as tax incentives for smaller families or penalties for larger families. These policies help create awareness and incentivize individuals to consider family planning while ensuring that social welfare programs remain sustainable.

Addressing Poverty for Sustainable Development

Poverty is a driving factor behind high birth rates due to lack of access to basic resources like food, healthcare, and clean water. By addressing poverty levels globally, we can promote sustainable development and create a more balanced society. Improving access to resources and opportunities, including education and healthcare, can help break the cycle of poverty and contribute to population stabilization.

Promoting Sustainable Practices for Environmental Preservation

The population explosion has led to increased resource demand and environmental degradation. To prevent further damage to our planet, we must adopt sustainable practices. This includes reducing waste and emissions, conserving energy and water resources, and supporting renewable energy initiatives. Individuals can make a difference by making small changes in their daily lives, such as using reusable bags and containers. Governments also play a vital role in enacting policies that promote sustainability and holding corporations accountable for their environmental impact.

Education and Collective Action for Environmental Awareness

Education plays a critical role in raising awareness about the importance of preserving our planet’s natural resources. By educating ourselves and others about environmental issues, we can take informed action to mitigate them. It is essential for individuals, governments, and corporations to work together towards a sustainable future. Through collective effort, we can ensure that future generations inherit a healthy and thriving planet.

Population explosion is a pressing issue that requires immediate attention from individuals, governments, and organizations worldwide. The causes of this phenomenon are complex and multifaceted, but the consequences are dire if left unaddressed. We must work together to find solutions to population growth through education, family planning programs, and sustainable development initiatives. It is time for us to realize that our actions have consequences on the planet’s health and take responsibility for them. Ultimately it is up to us how we want our future generations to experience life on Earth. Do we want them struggling with basic necessities or enjoying a healthy environment? It’s high time to act now before it’s too late!

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Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center Gets $3.9 Million Extension

UC Merced’s Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center has earned multiyear funding to continue its mission to embolden community partners and share policy-influencing data in the long battle against the pervasive use of tobacco and other inhalants in underserved San Joaquin Valley and foothill populations.

NCPC will receive a $3.9 million grant from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program , a UC-based entity that funds inquiry into social, behavioral and biomedical sciences that aims to achieve health equity for all Californians. NCPC’s renewal goes into effect July 1 and extends the center’s work for four years. NCPC has established subawards with four partners to enhance the grant’s impact: California Health Collaborative, GreenInfo Network, Stanford University and UC Irvine.

This grant is part of the revenue generated by Proposition 56, also known as the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Act of 2016. This initiative is aimed at reducing smoking rates and tobacco-related illnesses while generating revenue for research. Also, there is a focus on addressing health inequity that disproportionately affects underserved populations.

NCPC is part of UC Merced’s Health Sciences Research Institute . The center’s director, Arturo Durazo , is a community health psychologist and HSRI academic scientist.

Tobacco is a significant health concern in rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The prevalence of cigarette smoking among rural adults in the United States was reported at 28.9%, notably higher than the general adult population's 11.5% in 2021 . Smokeless tobacco also is used more extensively than in urban communities.

In addition, a full third of underage decoys used by authorities to test retailers were able to purchase tobacco products in the Valley’s seven counties in 2022, according to California government data. Only the state’s northern foothill counties had a higher rate.

Tobacco products, especially among young users, have proved to be slippery adversaries, said Irene Yen , a professor of public health and principal investigator for NCPC.

“We thought we had taken care of cigarettes among young people,” she said. “Then there was an explosion of e-cigarettes and vaping. So the whole area is, sadly, a new challenge.”

The Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program is under the UC Office of the President, but securing funds to continue NCPC’s work was no slam dunk, Durazo said. The grant application was competitive, with experts from outside California reviewing the proposals.

“Securing this funding was no easy feat," Durazo said, comparing the rigor to what the National Institutes of Health demands for its funding decisions.

We plan to engage with collaborators and partners who can benefit from the data.

The center has been at the forefront of examining the impacts of tobacco and cannabis use and engaging the community through surveys and workshops to gather data that can inform existing and new policies. This involves collaborations with county health departments and community-based organizations.

In the months ahead, NCPC will create a dashboard of Valley-based data designed to influence how policymakers, agencies, community-based organizations and public health professionals share and acquire information related to tobacco, nicotine and cannabis use. Dashboard partner GreenInfo Network has a track record of successful projects that focus on reducing and eliminating the harmful impacts of these products. The collaboration will leverage GreenInfo’s expertise in several areas:

• Reducing marketing aimed at young people, with a goal of eliminating sales to minors.
• Assessing the enforcement of policies that restrict sales, ensuring retailers comply with regulations.
• Analyzing the disproportionate burden of tobacco, nicotine and cannabis on underserved and exploited communities, then advocating for equitable public health solutions.li
• Supporting the development of effective, scientifically backed strategies that help people quit.

The trick is to convince nonprofit community-based organizations to use the same data available to county health agencies even as staff and funds fluctuate.

“We want to demonstrate to the CBOs that we are not an isolated institution,” Durazo said. “We plan to engage with collaborators and partners who can benefit from the data. We’ve just started to break bread to make these trusting relationships.”

NCPC also will continue its core training program to develop citizen scientists from young adult undergraduates at UC Merced and California state universities at Fresno and Stanislaus County. The volunteers get hands-on experience in scientific research methodologies, data collection and environmental awareness.

In the center’s next phase, demonstration projects and proofs of concept will be with county offices of education and leaders of the Tobacco-Use Prevention Education programs. NCPC will involve high school students to help bring awareness of tobacco use and the third-hand environmental hazards caused by tobacco product waste.

NCPC will be part of an effort at UC Merced and other California research universities to mentor up-and-coming leaders in tobacco control research and advocacy.

“In short, we want to mentor our successors,” Durazo said. There also are research papers in the works that analyze responses to interviews about barriers to tobacco-control policies in the Valley and local foothills, along with a statement on cannabis control that targets emerging policies that promote the cannabis market as “healthy” or “functional.”

Professor Anna Song, NCPC’s founding director and principal investigator, will continue to work with the center as chief advisor. Song, a health psychologist, is now associate vice provost for academic personnel.

Jody Murray

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