Future of Global Population Growth

Introduction
Global population growth has been on the rise from the beginning of time and the numbers just keep increasing since the fertility rates in some countries tend to have a flat line on the graph, but for others it’s always a declining phenomenon. By 1980, the population of the world is estimated to have been at 5 billion and the number has always increased gradually due to some reasons that will be discussed in this essay. According to Malcolm(2012, pg. 18), at a population growth rate of 90million per year from the 1990s, it is estimated by the United Nations that the world population will be 20 billion and it continues to grow as the quality of life is believed to have increased.
Several factors have led to steady growth of population all over the world and these include the improvement in the quality of life. The kind of food people ate was healthier, more food was available to feed the growing population since the agricultural ways had improved and this enabled people to live longer since they were well fed. Revolution in science is another factor that enabled medicines and effective ways of treating disease to improve the lives of people and they were able to live longer since access to better medical care was guaranteed. According to Zhou (2009, economic enquiry), a healthy population shows the mortality rate decrease since better healthcare means a healthy nation.
There are different explanations as to why the population growth has staggered over the years in some countries and has increased rapidly in others. In the 17th century, population growth was slow and unsteady due to the various factors like war, famine, epidemics and pandemics causing havoc and killing millions of people and with rudimentary technology then, there was no better solution for the problem but rather the wait and see attitude. Fast forward to the 21st century and the technology is revolutionized. There is effective healthcare, food security, and security of the people since wars are not that prevalent in world right now so it gives people the ability to live peacefully and have a chance to grow.
There is a clear contrast in these statistics between developed countries and developing countries when it comes to population growth. In developed countries, the fertility rates are at a low and has been the trend from the 1950s. Industrialization is said to be one of the major causes of the low fertility rates, since with the many industries in the developed world, chemicals emitted into the air as a result affected people in the developed countries. In developing nations, the fertility rates have been constant with rapid population growth increasing by 1% every decade. The lack of industries in the developing nations has helped since there is not much toxicity to affect the health and the food production in developing nations is done using basic technology so nit much waste is released into the air according to W Lutz et al (2008).
In developed nations, their populations are massive thus a need to control the population for the good of the country. In the past they had high mortality rates due to sanitation issues, wars, epidemics but this changed with the industrial revolution that improved agriculture, health care and transport systems that ensured a better country for the people. Rapid population growth in developed countries is no easy feat as the population is more informed about breeding and having offspring without proper plans. Social reforms which have been revolutionary in the developed nation have introduced planned parenting which is in law to prevent parents from having more than the required number of children in a household. In contrast, in developing nations, the social reforms have not developed enough to sensitize the population but they are getting there.
Rapid population growth in developing nations affect their socio-economic development in different ways like inadequate services provision to the ever growing population. The technology in the developing nations is not advanced hence the predictability is difficult to show since there is not much to offer from the government. Industrialization has started to be realized in developing nations from the late 1980s which is far too late for them and with the rapid population growth in those countries, being able to cope with the population becomes a problem since with all the social problems the government is not able to give specific assurances on which side of the population to cater for.
The growth of the urban population has seen a rise and rise in population numbers of urban centres. These are places believed to be comfortable to live in since service provision is good, health care is advances, employment opportunities are readily available and this attracts a huge mass of people to those settlements. During industrial revolution according to PR Ehlich (1990), the technology was mainly used to develop urban centres. The agricultural produce was transported using railways, which was developed during this time, since most urban centres were major trading places and the exchange of goods and services drove people out of the rural areas to urban areas and the trend goes on up to now since it is more attractive to reside in an urban area as opposed to rural areas. Most developed nations have a higher percentage of the population living in urban areas with Belgium leading the pack since it is estimated 97% of its population lives in urban areas.
In developing countries, the scenario is the same since most urban centres are the hubs of development. Technology adopted form the developed nations is used to upgrade urban centres which has seen a huge influx of people in urban areas and less people in rural areas. According to P. Ndemo (2016), the population of Nairobi, a city in Kenya is an estimated 6 million and continues to grow as there are various attractions, just like in other major cities in developing nations. Technology hubs are set up there thus attracting people, major government institutions are there and this does attract people to the city and more employment opportunities are available in the urban areas so much more people will continue to flood the urban areas with the hope of making it and getting goodies from the urban areas.
In conclusion, human population has been growing and continues to grow as long as there is food and one is able to breed offspring. Good governance, technological innovations, wars, pandemics, social reforms and employment opportunities are some of the factors that affect the population statistics in both developed and developing nations. It is important to remember when looking at the trend of population growth, in developed nations, it has increased but their standards of living continues to improve in contrast with developing nations whose population numbers have increased since the 1950s but the standard of living continues to deteriorate.




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