UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

Tulip st,. Area D, Camarin, Caloocan City

Anoba, John Paulo F. Prof. Marin

BSAIS-2A

POPULATION GROWTH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: CAUSES,

CONSEQUENCES, AND CONTROVERSIES

In the past few decades, we only have few populations but now we all know
that our population is getting bigger day by day. As the twenty-first century began,
the world population was estimated to be almost 6.1 billion people. Projections by
the United Nation placed figure at more than 9.2 billion people by the year 2050
before reaching a maximum of 11 billion by 2200. What will be the economic and
social implications for levels of living, national and personal esteem, and freedom
of choice? In this topic, we are going to talk about the issues relating to population
growth to economic development.
Every year approximately 80 million people are being added to the world’s
population. Almost all of this net population increase-97%- is in developing
countries. Population growth is a problem of human welfare and of development
and rapid population growth can have serious consequences for the well-being of
all humanity. Population growth and quality of life has six major issues; Will
developing countries be able to improve levels of living given anticipated
population growth? – How will developing countries deal with the vast increases in
their labor forces? – How will higher population growth rates affect poverty? –
Will developing countries be able to extend the coverage and improve the quality
of health care and education in the face of rapid population growth? – Is there a
relationship between poverty and family size? – How does affluence in the
developed world affect the ability of developing countries to provide for their
people?
DTM or the Democratic Transition Model describes a sequence of changes
in the relationships between birth and death rates. The model was produced using
changes in the natural increase in several countries in Western Europe and North
America. This model suggests that the population growth rates for all countries can
be divided into 4 stages. The first stage is about the birth rate, death rate, natural
 UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY
Tulip st,. Area D, Camarin, Caloocan City

increase, and the birthrate is very high, death rate is very high and the natural
increase is population steady. In second stage the birth rate is very high, the death
rate is falling rapidly and the natural increase is very rapid increase and the reason
for changes in birth rate are children needed for farming, they die at an early age
due to illnesses, No family planning and religious and social encouragement the
same as the stage 1. In third stage the birth rate is falling rapidly, death rate falling
more slowly and the natural increase is rapid increase and the reasons for changes
in birth rate are improved medical care and diet, fewer children are needed and the
reasons for changes in death rate is improvements in medical care, water supply
and sanitation. Lastly, in the fourth stage birth rate is falling more slowly, death
rate is slightly fall and the natural increase is very slow increase and the reasons for
changes in birth rate are family planning, good health, later marriages, improving
status of women and reasons for changes in death rate are good health care reliable
food supply, people are living much longer.
The Malthusian Population Trap, The Malthusian trap named after the
19thcentury political economist Thomas Malthus, he believed that population can
or will outgrow the means to feed itself. The result would be widespread famine.
Malthus observed that plants and animals produced significantly more offspring
than could survive. The theory propounded by Malthus can be summed up in the
following propositions: Food is necessary to the life of man and, therefore,
exercises a strong check on population. In other words, population is necessarily
limited by the means of subsistence (i.e., food). Population increases faster than
food production. Whereas population increases in geometric progression, food
production increases in arithmetic progression. Population always increases when
the means of subsistence increase, unless prevented by some powerful checks.
Population growth today has become a serious matter of concern for the
world. The world population has been consistently increasing at an alarming
rate and uncontrolled population growth leads to rapid urbanization and lack of
resources. Natural resources that are pretty scarce in some parts of the world
become scarcer due to increased consumption. For me, we must have now a one
child policy or two child policy for us to slow down the population growth because
in the near future if we have a massive population, we are going to have a lack of
resources.
UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY
Tulip st,. Area D, Camarin, Caloocan City