The Link Between Population Growth and Poverty

Population and Consumption There are a few different links between poverty and population. The text notes (p.169) that "much of the recent international migration has been from the developing world to the developed world," and that many people migrate because they realize that their best chance to escape poverty is to move to another country. Yet, rapidly growing populations are also a contributing factor to poverty in the developing world. In much of the developed world, natural (non-migration) population growth rates are slow, and have been for decades.

These are also the wealthiest countries in the world. The countries with the most rapid growth rates are those with the worst economies. Those countries struggle to produce enough food for their people, and that struggle becomes even harder when the population increases rapidly. The population pyramids in some countries provide interesting perspective on the links between poverty and population. In some developing nations, the median age is very low, in the 20s, and as much as half the population are under the age of 18.

That is a vast amount of people in the country that are dependent on a relative small number of working age people. It is nearly impossible to improve an economy with such a high proportion of dependent people. Rosling (2010) notes in his talk that people in the Western world have generally been able to maintain a lifestyle of high consumption, but that there have been changes in the way that the developing world has evolved, such that the old developed-developing paradigm is outmoded.

In the developing world, billions of people have been added, and they have a relatively high level of quality of life and consumer culture. However, this has not affected the quality of life for the poorest people. Rosling also notes that population growth is going to continue as long as people continue to exist in extreme poverty. Getting out of such poverty requires the same things that slow population growth -- education, women's rights, access to child health care.

These things all help to bring about better economies in the long run. He cites evidence from the countries that were poor in1960 and are not poor today, most of which are found in Asia. The rise of a global middle class has helped to slow population growth and because of its relationship with education and health care is also related to the economic status of people in the poorest regions.

Campbell at all argue that Africa will be the biggest source of migrants in the 21st century, because of the chronic poverty issues on that continent. There are many governments in Africa but few are what would be described as good ones. The result is that even in countries with abundant natural resources -- petro economies like Nigeria, Angola or Gabon -- there is little reinvestment of those revenues back into the education and health care that will be needed to lift those countries out of poverty.

Thus, even when there are the means available, in many cases the benefits do not flow to the people, which only serves to perpetuate the poverty. Poverty is also linked to malnutrition. The text makes an argument related to inefficient food production, which is a fair argument in a sense, but even with the inefficiencies in food production there is theoretically enough food to feed the global population. However, food distribution is by no means equitable.

Access to food is governed by wealth, distribution channels, and trade barriers, meaning that some countries have very poor access to food. This situation is worst in countries that.