Answer to Question #190714 in Economics for Elsel Enna Namalat

Question

Describe the principal causes of high population growth in developing countires and the major consequences

Answer 1

There are two demographic problems on the globe. This is the rapid population growth in developing countries and the "extinction" of the population in economically developed countries. The demographic situation in economically developed countries is difficult: a number of countries are already experiencing a demographic crisis, which is caused by natural population decline, which entails many negative consequences in the economic and social spheres of life. A detailed analysis of the demographic problem is necessary for making decisions in matters affecting the interests of society as a whole: health care, education, training and retraining of personnel, insurance, social security, the pension system, and others.

The demographic transition from the traditional (high fertility - high mortality - low natural increase) to the modern type of population reproduction (low fertility - low mortality - low natural population growth) was completed in developed countries in the first third of the 20th century, and in most countries with economies in transition - in the middle of the last century. At the same time, in the 1950s-1960s, a demographic transition began in a number of countries and regions of the rest of the world, which begins to end only in Latin America, East, and Southeast Asia and continues in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle, and the Middle East.

The rapid rates of population growth in comparison with the rates of socio-economic development in these regions lead to an aggravation of the problems of employment, poverty, food situation, the land issue, to a low level of education, and deterioration of the population's health. These countries see the solution to their demographic problem in the acceleration of economic growth and the simultaneous decrease in the birth rate (an example is China).

Population growth in developing countries

Until the 17th century. the population of the Earth increased slowly. It was approximately 50 million in the 5th century. BC e. and reached 500 million by the 16th century. Then the growth rate increased dramatically. Thus, the world's population increased daily in 1992 by 254 thousand people, less than 13 thousand of them accounted for industrialized countries, the remaining 241 - in developing countries. 60% - Asia, 20% - Africa, 10% - Latin America. These striking differences are responsible for the current population explosion, which is much more powerful than the one that took place in Europe. It began in the 1950s and continues to the present day, although it is rapidly declining.

At present, the trend towards a decrease in the birth rate in accordance with the demographic transition has already affected all developing countries, which is due to the socio-economic changes in the developing society as a whole and changes in the family, in the position of women, and her involvement in production. The overall mortality rate continues to decline, against which a very young population structure is visible in most developing countries, which to some extent contributes to the continuation of the modern demographic explosion, especially in the countries of South Asia, the Middle East, Tropical Africa, Latin America.

According to research by the German Population Fund Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), the world's population is currently more than 7 billion people, and the annual population growth is about 82 million.

The features of the population explosion are:

· In developing countries, there is a rapid population growth, significantly outstripping their socio-economic development, exacerbating the already complex problems of employment, social sphere, food supply, economy, etc .;

· Power is significantly less than in the last century;

· A large-scale phenomenon.

The modern population explosion not only occurs in a large number of countries, directly covering a significant part of the world population but, in fact, directly or indirectly affects the entire world community, turning the local demographic problem into one of the global problems of our time.

End of the baby boom:

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that the relative growth rates of the Earth's population reached their peak in the 1960s; and from the end of the 1980s, the absolute rates of growth in the world's population began to decline. Currently, population growth rates are declining in almost all countries of the world; and we can say that we are living in the era of the end of the population explosion. At the same time, the threat of reaching catastrophic levels of relative overpopulation still persists in individual countries, where the rate of demographic growth is still extremely high, and it is slowing down at an insufficient rate (primarily, we are talking about countries in Tropical Africa, such as Nigeria, DRC, Angola, etc.).

136 countries took part in the I International Conference on Population in 1974 in Bucharest, and in II (Mexico City, 1984) - already 147 countries. development In the NO International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), 179 states have already taken part It adopted the final and document - the 20-year Program of Action in the field of population and development, which discloses almost all pressing problems in this area In this document examines the relationship between population, economic growth, and sustainable development Program covers fertility, mortality, and population growth rates; urbanization and migration (problems of population outflow from rural areas, forced displacement of the population, which is caused by a deterioration in the quality of the environment, an increase in the number of armed conflicts, etc.).

According to scientists, there is no doubt that the planet is not able to provide an unlimited population through its limited own size and completeness of natural resources The trend towards an increase in the level of material life is inevitable It increases the activity of using natural resources and leads to the fact that further population growth is achieved at the cost of worsening conditions his life New scientific discoveries and new technologies can, of course, weaken the urgency of this issue, but they cannot remove it from the agenda if population growth continues Differentiation of economic standards of different segments of the population, countries and entire continents, the threat of environmental degradation, the unreasonableness of the race weapons also negatively affect the quality of living conditions.

So, the demographic policy is a system of measures taken by the government of the state to change the demographic situation in the desired direction Examples of countries in which the main task is to reduce population growth in China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka A typical example of demographic policy aimed at growth natural increase (due to an increase in the birth rate), - the countries of Western Europe. The demographic situation is not the best in Africa. The countries of Asia and Latin America have somewhat stabilized the uncontrolled population growth, some of them have approached the indicators of the first type of reconstruction (low fertility, low mortality).