I.

The Basic Issue: Population Growth and Quality of Life

One of the issues of every country is its growing population. Population is the

inhabitants of a particular area or place, we, living in the Philippines are inhabitants of

the Philippines, and the people living in United States are all inhabitants of the United

States. All demographic processes, which are the subject of population studies and

policies, boil down to the life and death of human beings. However, the conditions

surrounding the birth, life and death of human beings are, like the meanings which

humans ascribe to their existence, infinitely varied. Investigation of population problems

involves the use of population forecasts based on sets of assumptions. These

calculations serve to predict situations, build scenarios and foresee their many

consequences. Population growth is measured in most places in the world, and

extremely long-term projections, it is measured using this particular formula ”Growth

rate (r) = number of births (b)—number of deaths (d) / average population in time

interval” . In 2013, the world’s population reached about 7.2 billion people. In that year,

the United Nations Population Division projected that population would rise to about 8.1

billion in 2025 and reach about 9.6 billion by the year 2050. In the current year the

world’s population is 7.7 billion.

Every year, more than 75 million people are being added to the world’s population.

Almost all of this net population increase 97% is in developing countries. But the

problem of population growth is not simply a problem of numbers. It is a problem of

human welfare and of development. Rapid population growth can have serious

consequences for the well-being of all humanity. If development entails the

improvement in people’s levels of living their incomes, health, education, and general

well-being and if it also encompasses their capabilities, self-esteem, respect, dignity,

and freedom to choose.

For an ordinary citizen of country with growing population but limited resources, the

greater the size of the population in a society becomes, the lower the quality of human

life will be, other things being equal. On the other hand, based on a Durkheimian

argument the relation between population and quality of life can be viewed rather

differently from the standpoint above. It is a common knowledge that on the whole the

world’s population has grown at even faster rate since the beginning of human

existence yet the quality of human life, often represented by economic development,

has gotten much better, rather than worse. It seems that even with little resources

human beings can tap its full potential and come up with new alternatives of doing

things. It is also been claimed that population growth is a necessary condition for

economic development. There are different sides which tell the relationship between

population growth, economic development, and quality of life, there is a positive side

and of course a negative side.

 II. Goals and Objectives: Toward a Consensus

There are conflicting arguments regarding the positive and negative effects
of population growth in which the latter is more talked about, but a common
ground has emerged on which many people on both parties of the
argument can agree. This position is characterized succinctly by Robert
Cassen who is a British economist and former Professor of the Economics
of Development at the University of Oxford. International consensus among
developing countries states that the world would be better if population
were to grow more slowly. People should look into the consequences of
population growth but not exaggerate it nor minimize it. Claims that
population growth is not at all important has an effect of diminishing proper
concern for the subject.

Cassen provided three propositions to support his opinion. First Proposition

is, population growth is not the primary cause of poverty, inequality, and
limited freedom of choice. These problems could be results of poor families
and failure of aspects of domestic and international development policy.
Second proposition states that the problem of population is not simply one
of numbers but involves the quality of life and well-fare. Thus, world
resources must be utilized and distributed properly in both developing and
developed countries. Third, Population of developing countries will increase
no matter what fertility control is applied. This rapid population growth will
intensify underdevelopment problems in specific countries and regions of
the world. With connection to these three propositions we may conclude
the policies, goals, and objective that might be helpful to the issue of
population growth in developing countries.

First, in countries or regions where population size, distribution, and growth

are viewed as an existing or potential problem, the primary objective of any
strategy to limit further growth must deal not only with the population
variable per se but also with the underlying social and economic conditions
of underdevelopment. Problems such as absolute poverty, gross inequality,
widespread unemployment (especially among women), limited female
access to education, malnutrition, and poor health facilities must be given
high priority. Their amelioration is both a necessary concomitant of
development and a fundamental motivational basis for the expanded
freedom of the individual to choose an optimal and in many cases, smaller
family size.

Second, to bring about smaller families through development-induced

motivations, family-planning programs providing both the education and the
technological means to regulate fertility for people who wish to regulate it
should be established. The more educated they get the more aware they
become.

Third, developed countries should help developing countries achieve their

lowered fertility and mortality objectives, not only by providing
contraceptives and funding family-planning clinics, but also, even more
important, by curtailing their own excessive depletion of nonrenewable
world resources through programs designed to cut back on the
unnecessary consumption of products that intensively use such resources;
by making genuine commitments to eradicating poverty, illiteracy, disease,
and malnutrition in developing countries as well as their own; and by
recognizing in both their rhetoric and their international economic and
social dealings that development is the real issue, not simply population
control.