Global Demography

• Will the child be an economic asset or a burden to the family?

• Urbanized, educated, and professional families with two incomes,
however, desire just one or two progenies and they also have their own
sights on long-term saving plans.
• Rural families view multiple children and large kinship networks as
critical investments.
• The differing versions of family determine the economic and social
policies that countries craft regarding their perspective populations.
• Countries in the “less developed regions of the world” that rely on
agriculture tend to maintain high levels population growth.
• Urban populations have grown, but not necessarily because families
are having more children. It is rather the combination of the natural
outcome of significant migration to the cities by people seeking work in
the “more modern” sectors of society.
• The said movement of people is especially manifest in the developing
countries where industries and businesses in the cities are attracting
people from rural areas.
• International migration will also play a part in overpopulation.
• Countries welcome immigrants as they offset the debilitating effects
of an aging population, but they are also perceived as threats to the
job market because they compete against citizens and often have the
edge because they are open to receiving lower wages.
• Voters’ pressure has often constrained their governments to institute
stricter immigration policies.
• Dayo system
 The “Perils” of Overpopulation
• Development planners see urbanization and industrialization as
indicators of a developing society, but disagree on the role of
population growth or decline in modernization.
• British Scholar Thomas Malthus said in his 1798essay entitled: “An
Essay on the Principle of Population” that population growth will
inevitably exhaust world food supply by the middle of the 19th
century.
• Late 1960s, American Biologist Paul Ehrlich and his wife Anne
Elhrich wrote The Population Bomb, argues that the population in
1970s and 1980s will bring about global environmental disasters
that would, in turn, lead to food shortage and mass starvation.
• They also proposed that countries like the United States take
the lead in the promotion of global population control in order to
reduce growth rate to zero.
• By limiting the population, vital resources could be used for
economic progress and not be “diverted” and “wasted” to
feeding more mouths.
• That argument became the basis for government “population
control” programs worldwide.
• In the 20th Century, Asian countries like China, India and the
Philippines believes that the free expansion of family members
would lead to a crisis in resources, which in turn may result in
widespread poverty, mass hunger and political instability.
• In 1958 the American policy journal Foreign Affairs already
advocated “contraception and sterilization” as the practical
solutions to global economic, social, and political problems.
• Advocates of population control contend for universal access to
reproductive technologies and, more importantly, giving women
the right to choose whether to have children or not.
• Politics determine “birth control” programs.
• Developed countries justify their support for population control
in developing countries by depicting the latter as conservative
societies.
 It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!
• The use of population control to prevent economic crisis has its
critics.
• Betsy Hartmann disagrees with the advocates of neo-
Malthusian theory and accused governments of using
population control as a “substitute for social justice and much-
needed reforms—such land distribution, employment creation,
provision, of mass education and health care, and
emancipation.
• The grow of population in some countries in 1960s was the
growth of aided development by spurring technological and
institutional innovation and increasing the supply of human
ingenuity.
• Megacities are now clusters in which income disparities along with
“transportation, housing, air pollution and, waste management” are
major problems, they also have become, and continue to be, “centers
of economic growth and activity”.
• The median of 29.4 years for females and 30.9 for males in the cities
means a young working population.
• With this median age, states are assured that they have a robust
military force.
• As a country’s baby-boom generation gets older, for a time it
constitutes a large cohort group of working-age individuals and, later a
large cohort of elderly people. In all circumstances, there are reasons
to think that this very dynamic age structure will have economic
consequences. A historically high proportion of working-age individuals
in a population means that potentially, there are more workers per
dependent that previously. Production can therefore increase relative
to consumption, and GDP capita can receive a boost.
• The productive capacities of this generation are especially high
in regions like East Asia as “Asia’s remarkable growth in the
past half century coincided closely with demographic change in
the region.
• As infant mortality fell from 181 to 34 per 1, 000 births between
1950 and 2000, fertility fell from six to two children per woman.
• The lag between falls in mortality and fertility created a baby-
boom generation: between 1965 and 1990, the region’s
working-age population grew nearly four times faster than the
dependent population.
• Several studies have estimated that this demographic shift was
responsible for one-third of East Asia’s economic growth during
the period.
• Population growth has, in fact, spurred “technological and
institutional innovation” and increased “the supply of human
ingenuity”.
• Advances in agricultural production have shown that the
Malthusian nightmare can be prevented.
• Scholars and policymakers agree with the neo-Malthusians but
suggest that if governments pursue population control
programs, they must include “more inclusive growth” and
“greener economic growth”.
 Women and Reproductive Rights
• Women is often the subject of population measures.
• Reproductive rights supporters argue that if population control
and economic development were to reach their goals, women
must have control over whether they will have children or not
and when they will have their progenies. By giving this power to
them, they will be able to pursue their vocations—be they
economic , social or political—and contribute to economic
growth.
• The serial correlation between fertility, family, and fortune has
motivated countries with growing economies to introduce or
strengthen their reproductive health laws, including abortion.
• High-income First World nations and fast-developing countries
were able to sustain growth in part because women were given
the power of choice and easy access to reproductive
technologies.
• The more educated a woman is, the better are her prospects of
improving her economic position.
• Women can spend most of the time pursuing either their higher
education or their careers, instead of forcibly reducing this tome to
take care of their children.
• Most countries implement reproductive health laws because they
worry about the health of the mother.
• Opponents regard reproductive rights as nothing but a false front
of abortion. They contend that this method of preventing
conception endangers the life of the mother and must be banned.
• The religious wing of the anti-reproductive rights flank goes
further and describes abortion as a debauchery that sullies the
name of God; it will send the mother to hell and prevents a new
soul, the baby, to become human. This position was a politically
powerful one partly because various parts of the developing
world remain very conservative.
• A country being industrialized and developed, however does not
automatically assure pro-women reproductive regulations.
• While pro-choice advocates argue that abortion is necessary to
protect the health of the mother, their conservative rivals shift
the focus on the death of the fetus in the mother’s womb as the
reasin for reversing the law.
 The Feminist Perspective
• Feminists approach the issue of reproductive rights from another
angle.
• They are, foremost, against any form of population control because
they are compulsory by nature, resorting to a carrot-and-stick
approach that actually does not empower women.
• They believe government assumptions that poverty and
environmental degradation are caused by overpopulation are wrong.
• These factors ignore other equally important cause like the unequal
distribution of wealth, the lack of public safety nets like universal
health care, education and gender equality programs.
• Feminists also point out that there is very little evidence that point
to overpopulation as the culprit behind poverty and ecological
devastation.
• One of the goals of the 1994 United Nations International
Conference on Population and Development suggests
recognition on the said issue.
• Representatives on that conference agreed that women should
receive family planning counseling on abortion, the dangers of
sexually transmitted diseases, the nature of human sexuality, and
the main elements of responsible parenthood.
• Women’s and feminist argument on reproductive rights and
overpopulation are acknowledged, but the struggle to turn them
into policy is still fought at the national level.
• It is the dilemma that women and feminist movements face today.
 Population Growth and Food Security
• Today’s global population has reached 7.4 billion, and it is
estimated to increase to 9.5 billion in 2050, then 11.2 billion by
2100.
• The opposite is happening in the developed world where
populations remain steady in general, but declining in some of
the most advanced countries.
• The decline in fertility and the existence of a young productive
population, however, may not be enough to offset this concern
over food security.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization warns that in order for
countries to mitigate the impact of population growth, food
production must increase by 70 percent; annual cereal
production must rise to 3 billion tons from the current 2.1. billion;
and yearly meat production must go up too 200 millions tons to
reach 470 million.
• FAO recommends that countries increase their investments in
agriculture, craft long-term policies aimed at fighting poverty, and
invest in research and development.
• It also suggests that countries develop a comprehensive social
service program that includes food assistance, consistent delivery
of health services, and education especially for the poor.
• If domestic production is not enough, it becomes essential for
nations to import
• FAO enjoins governments to keep their markets open, and to
eventually “move towards a global trading system that is fair
and competitive, and that contributes to a dependable market
for food.
• The statements are worthy recommendations but nation-states
shall need the political will to push through these sweeping
changes in population growth and food security.
• It will take some time to happen given that good governance is
also a goal that many nations, especially in the developing
world, have yet to attain.
 Conclusion
• Demography is a complex discipline that requires the
integration of various social scientific data.
• Demographic changes and policies have impacts on the
environment, politics, resources, and others.
• Demography accounts for the growth and decline of the human
species.
• It may be about large number and massive effects, but is
ultimately about people.
• No interdisciplinary account of globalization is complete without
an accounting of people
• How can technology and intervention in development offset the
pressures of population growth?

• Under what circumstances is rapid population growth is beneficial to

societies?