What is rapid population growth? (2023)

What is meant by rapid population growth?

Rapid growth of population is known as Exponential growth where the population is increased with the constant increasing birth rate and is never limited to food and diseases. The birth rate alone controls the growth of population. This accelerating pattern of increasing population size is called as exponential growth.

Controlling the population, in general, can be controversial as it touches upon controlling the three leading causes of rapid population growth: birth rates, death rates, and migration.

More people means an increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and more. And all that consumption contributes to ecological degradation, increased conflicts, and a higher risk of large-scale disasters like pandemics.

Rapid population growth has serious economic consequences. It encourages inequities in income distribution; it limits rate of growth of gross national product by holding down level of savings and capital investments; it exerts pressure on agricultural production and land; and it creates unemployment problems.

When demographers attempt to forecast changes in the size of a population, they typically focus on four main factors: fertility rates, mortality rates (life expectancy), the initial age profile of the population (whether it is relatively old or relatively young to begin with) and migration.

By 1950, Asia's population represented about 55% of the world's population, with a total of 1.4 billion people. The second time that the human population exploded was between 1950 and 2010. The world's population nearly tripled, and in the U.S alone, the population doubled.

The impact of so many humans on the environment takes two major forms: consumption of resources such as land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and minerals. waste products as a result of consumption such as air and water pollutants, toxic materials and greenhouse gases.

Rapid population growth continues to be a major underlying force of environmental degradation and a threat to sustainable use of natural resources. It reduces the quality and quantity of natural resources through overexploitation, intensive farming and land fragmentation.

They have not been able to find jobs in industries. The urban poor are either casual labourers or intermittently employed. They lack job security, or have limited skills. This is how the growing population without access to proper education, employment led to an increase in poverty.

How can we control rapid population growth?

With population expanding at such a rapid pace, the world will eventually become overcrowded. Population density will increase and global warming, rising tides and increased severity of weather will cause the amount of viable land to decrease.

The two main factors affecting population growth are the birth rate (b) and death rate (d). Population growth may also be affected by people coming into the population from somewhere else (immigration, i) or leaving the population for another area (emigration, e).

Effects of Population Growth on The Economy

Population growth may have a positive effect on the economy. For example, an increase in the number of people in the United States will lead to more access to labor, which will lead to higher productivity, which then will lead to more goods being produced.

Positive effects of population growth

This shows low mortality rates in pregnant women, children, and infants. Another important benefit of population growth is seen in the form of better trade structures. This is because nations with higher populations have a more innovative workforce.

Rapidly growing populations have four characteristics: Individuals in the population reproduce early in life. Individuals have short periods between generations. Individuals have long reproductive lives.

There are two main models used to describe how population size changes over time: exponential growth and logistic growth.

Overuse of Resources: Rapid population growth tends to overuse the country's natural resources. This is particularly the case where the majority of people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. With rapidly rising population, agricultural holdings become smaller and unremunerative to cultivate.