CMN 305: Media and Development

Report

On

“Does population growth lead to economic development?”

Prepared for:

Jessica Tartila Suma

Course Instructor of CMN 305

Prepared by:

Sharif Ahmad Shabbir

ID: 0810216

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Contents

Introduction Page 3

Defining the Variables Page 4

Methodology Page 6

Literature Review Page 7

Analysis Page 10

Case Study Page 17

The Bangladesh Perspective Page 19

The Mass Media Influence Page 20

Conclusion Page 22

Glossary Page 23

Bibliography Page 24

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Introduction

Population is a measure of how many persons are living in a specific geographic territory.

It is true that in the recent years, the population of the whole world has increased

drastically. Now the world population is over the six billion mark and is still increasing

exponentially. This rigorous population growth is leading to many possibilities and also

to many problems as well. More or less we all are aware of the problems created by

overpopulation and this paper does not intend to highlight those problems, instead this

research paper will talk about a possibility associated with population growth which is

economic development.

Does population growth really bring in economic development? What is the practical

relation between population growth and economic development? In a world where people

are increasing day by day, there comes a possibility that using these extra number of

people by turning them into human resources and engaging them in economic activities

can actually lead to economic development. Now is this always the case or there are other

arguments against this fact? This research paper will try to find out answers to these

questions by trying to relate different variables to population growth and economic

development.

If population growth is pertinent in a country what effect does it have on the economic

development of the country? Does population growth make the economy of the country

boost up to a new level or is it the opposite way round? How are the variables interlinked

and contribute to economic development while population growth is occurring?

This research paper will talk about population growth and economic development, how

they are related with insights using the variables, a case study of India, the present

position of Bangladesh in terms of population growth and economic development and

how the media can use communication tools to relate population growth and economic

development using Bangladesh as an example.

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Defining the Variables

This research paper will deal with the following variables in analyzing the research topic:

Main Independent Variable Main Dependent Variable

Population growth Economic Development

Also the independent variable: population growth is dependent on other factors

(variables) which are given below:

- birth rate

- better health facilities

- death rate

- early child marriages

- lack of knowledge on family planning

- lack of education

- migration

A higher birth rate and a lower death rate obviously lead to population growth.

Similarly better health facilities decrease the death rate, as a result population rises.

Early child marriages are also an important factor because in the rural areas of the

developing countries like Bangladesh still today girls are being forced to marry at an

early age. As a result, the girl becomes pregnant at a premature stage, now there can

be two possibilities:

1. The girl dies while giving birth to her child

2. The girl survives while giving birth and later becomes pregnant again to give birth

to more children

Now both the possibilities are dangerous. The first possibility will take away 2 lives

(the mother and the child) which is totally unacceptable as human lives are very

valuable. The second possibility will tend to raise the population. Assuming that most

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of the rural people of developing countries do not receive basic education and are

ignorant about family planning, we can easily deduce that the population growth is

mainly triggered by these rural people.

Now the rate of population growth will effect economic development. This can be

broken down into two stages:

- Slower population growth

- Faster population growth

Now if the population growth is slower, then there will be less manpower and that could

have an adverse effect on economic growth while in the case of a faster population

growth, the country will have abundant manpower and this in return can foster economic

growth. But faster population growth brings in other problems that might hamper

economic development in the country.

All these variables and factors will be considered in analyzing the relationship between

population growth and economic development to find out a possible answer to the

research question dealt in this paper.

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Methodology

Since the research topic is quite extensive and theoretical where there are a lot of

conceptual implications and statistical data, this research paper is heavily dependent on

secondary sources for information and references. The detailed methodology followed

while preparing this paper is given below:

- First the research idea was generated which is the relationship between population

growth and economic development

- The variables were identified and the factors affecting the variables were also

distinguished

- Then help was taken from secondary sources* for information and references

- Then with the help of the secondary sources, the research question was

formulated

- The research question was then analyzed into further details taking into account

the variables related to population growth and economic development

- A relationship was tried to establish between population growth and economic

development with the help of statistical evidence and case studies

- Then the role of media as an intervening determinant was identified with the help

of a suitable communication model

- With the detailed analysis of the research question, a conclusion was reached as to

whether population growth leads to economic development or not.

* Earlier publications on population growth and economic development which include books, journals,

articles and online content

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Literature Review

S.B. Mukherjee in his book titled “Population growth and urbanization in South and

South-East Asia” talks about the socio-economic correlates of population growth. He

says that mostly high birth rates lead to higher economic development and sometimes it is

also the opposite. He has identified the dependent and independent variables for

population growth very splendidly and analyzed their relationships with the use of

statistical methods but he did not give any specific conclusion at the end of his

discussion. The statistical data analysis is quite complex and needs special expertise to

interpret the in depth meanings of the statistical values.

Michael P. Todaro and Stephen C. Smith in their book titled “Economic Development”

nicely and elaborately discussed population growth and economic development from a

broad perspective by giving in a lot of details and by presenting some useful arguments.

The writers mention the challenges of population growth at the start, then they made a

review of the world population where a comparative picture is shown on what the world’s

population was before, what it is now and how much will it rise in the future.

Then the population structure and why population growth is occurring is well explained

with special emphasis on the population trends in developing countries. How fertility

rates can lead to development, what happens when population growth is desirable and

undesirable, what can be the role of developing nations in terms of population and

economic policy planning and how developed nations can play their role and help

developing countries with their population growth and economic development – all these

issues are highlighted in the discussion with due importance and proper details. The

writers conclude their discussion with the fact that birth rates in many developing

countries have decreased in the recent years leaving a hope for optimism which is very

true and also the developed countries should come forward with development assistance

for the poor developing countries.

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In the book named “Understanding Population Change” by Charles B. Nam, the writer

talks about the relationship between population growth and work force. If population

increases, then there will be more people to work and contribute to the economy. The

writer gives a well explained picture of how the total population of a country is divided

into the working and non working class. The writer then mentions that level of living is

also linked with population growth. If population increases and the economy is

developed, then the level of living of the people of that country will tend to rise also. The

writer also talks about economic development saying that the relationship of population

growth and economic development is not the same in every country, but normally

population growth leads to other factors which help foster the economic growth of the

country which may or may not be true for all the countries.

Dr. A.K.M. Kafiluddin, Professor Emeritus of National Institute of Preventive and Social

Medicine, in his book titled “Population Research, Environmental Conservation and

Economic Development” talks about population growth and economic development from

two perspectives: one from the global perspective and the other from the perspective of

Bangladesh. The writer elaborately talks about the economic consequences of population

growth i.e. how the economy of a country is affected when population growth is faster

and vice versa. It is also mentioned that when population growth is in a slower pace, the

percentage of people in the country living in poverty decreases which implies that

economic development is fostered at declining population growth levels.

The writer also talks about the implications of a high population growth on the economy

in terms of employment levels, productivity and skills of labour, income disparities and

changes in the production sectors to keep pace with the international markets. Dr. A.K.M.

Kafiluddin also gave a similar viewpoint like Charles B. Nam that no firm statements

cannot be made about the relationship between population growth and economic

development as different countries have different experiences in this regard i.e. what is

true for one country might not be suitable for another country as its population growth

pattern and economic structure might be different.

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Claus Chr. Portner in his article on “Population Growth and Economic Development’

talks about why studying the relationship between population growth and economic

development is important by giving detailed analysis on the purpose, structure and

theories of population growth and economic development. The writer talked about

various models of population growth and economic growth explaining their pros and cons

in a very straight forward manner.

The analysis of Walter Rostow’s five step model of economic development was also a

part of the literature review conducted for the preparation of this paper. Walter Rostow’s

theory said that an economy cannot change overnight. It changes in 5 steps and it takes

time to change to insure economic development in the society. Any society at its early

stage will be at the traditional level, and then it will move to a level where it will be ready

for a take-off to the economic transition. Next at the take-off stage the society will move

towards economic development from which it will move towards the maturity level and

then come to a halt assuming that everything in the society runs smoothly. Well Rostow’s

theory was criticized for the fact that no society in practice comes to a peaceful and

harmonious stage after it achieves economic development.

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Analysis

Now let’s proceed to the main discussion of whether population growth leads to

economic development or not. Before any analysis of the research question, at first it is

important to understand what actually population growth and economic development

means.

Population growth means an increase in the population of a particular country. The

population of a country increases only when the total birth rate or fertility rate of the

country exceeds the total death rate or mortality rate of the country. This means that more

people are born in the country making the population go up. Population can also increase

if the total emigration rate of the country is higher than the total immigration rate of the

country. This means that more people are entering the country which in result increases

the overall population of the country.

Population growth up to a certain extent is desirable. Population growth is a blessing for

some countries while it can be a serious problem for other countries. Developed countries

of the world do not face the problem of over population; in fact some developed countries

lack sufficient manpower due to under population and have to attract immigrants from

other countries to fill their manpower resources. While on the other hand, many

developing countries of the world are facing the burden of over population and as a result

lot of adversities persist in those developing countries.

Birth rates, death rates, emigration rates and immigration rates* – all of them depend on

specific factors. They are outlined below:

* See Glossary at the end of this report for meanings

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a) Poverty and lack of education: Poor countries have higher birth rates because most of

the people of poor countries living under severe poverty conditions do not have access to

education, most of the people do not have money to spend on education. If the people of

the country are not well educated, then they will be ignorant about the consequences of a

higher population growth and will not have any knowledge about family planning and its

benefits. It is seen that high fertility rates persist between uneducated people.

b) Lack of family planning knowledge: Many people are not open minded and they feel

shy about family planning programs. Sometimes they see family planning programs as a

violation to their religious beliefs. Especially in many Muslim countries, people do not

want to talk about family planning because they think that family planning will stop the

blessings of God that they receive in the form of children born in their families. They also

think that adopting family planning programs is a sin because you are not letting your

children being born, it is perceived as something equal to abortion. So this issue still

remains as a taboo in many places of the world even today. It is obvious that without

proper family planning programs, it is not possible to lower birth rates of a country which

is already over populated.

c) Early child marriages: This is related to illiteracy. When people are not educated, they

tend to make their children get married at a very early age which can have detrimental

effects. Mostly young girls of rural areas in developing countries are the victims of early

child marriages. It is perceived that girls are of no use (because boys are given more

priority), they are meant to do household chores and rear children. As a result, they are

denied proper access to education which is one of their fundamental citizen rights. The

girl’s parents think that what is the use of giving education to the girl, ultimately she has

to leave them and go to her husband’s house, set up her own family, have children and do

household work. The parents restrict educational access for their daughters thinking that

investing in their daughters’ education is a big waste of money. So they make their

daughters get married at an early age, hence the girls get pregnant at an early age when

their body is not even ready for pregnancy and giving birth to a child. Many girls die to

give birth to their children due to early age pregnancy. It also happens the other way

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round, for an early age pregnancy, the baby can be premature and can have high chances

of dying at its birth. All these situations affect the population trends in the country.

d) Better health facilities: Due to improvements and advancements in science and

medical technology, better health care facilities exist now-a-days than the previous times.

Many diseases can now be completely cured which were at one time perceived to be as

deadly, killer diseases. As a result, many lives can now be saved due to better health care

services. Improved medications are now available which are making people more

resistant to many prominent diseases and are saving many lives; hence less people are

dying compared to the past. So, death rates have significantly reduced influencing

population growth.

e) Better standard of living: Standard of living refers to all the aspects that are necessary

for a proper living which include better job facilities, better life security, better recreation

facilities, better transportation and communication systems, better housing facilities,

better education access and so on. A place which offers a better standard of living than

other areas will certainly attract more people towards it. That is why many people

migrate from the rural areas to the cities in the hope for a better life. So the cities face

over population problems because people entering cities do not tend to leave them very

easily. The migrants continue living in the cities and add up to the total city population.

The same thing can be said for migration between different countries. Developed

countries attract migrants because they have a better standard of living. These migrants

leave their own native lands and join as a member of the new host country. As a result,

the population in the native country will decrease and the population of the country which

is hosting the migrant will increase.

Sometimes population growth is not much of a burden if the population can be distributed

evenly across all the areas in the country. But in practice the total population is never

evenly distributed across the country because not all the areas are equally equipped with

all the elements necessary for a proper living. Places having a higher standard of living

will find themselves very densely populated because more people come and live in those

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areas. So at the end, it is seen that some parts of the country are over flooded with people

while the rest of the areas lack a stable population. In order to ensure an even distribution

of population throughout the country, all of the areas should be developed in terms of

their infrastructure so that the overall population can be dispersed evenly between all the

areas of the country and avoid the problems of high and low population density.

Now let’s talk about economic development. The simplest definition of economic growth

is an increase in real gross domestic product (GDP)* (that is, GDP adjusted for inflation).

The growth rate of real GDP is the percentage change in real GDP from one year to the

next. We can express the rate of growth in, for example, the period 2004-2005, as

follows: Growth rate of GDP = [GDP of 2005 – GDP of 2004]/ GDP of 2004 × 100

In other words, economic development refers to the transition of a country from a low

income economy to a high income economy with respect to its increased population.

Economic development includes all the processes and policies through which a country

makes its economic, political and social progress and ensures well being of its people.

The University of Iowa's Center for International Finance and Development states that:

"'Economic development' or 'development' is a term that economists, politicians, and

others have used frequently in the 20th century. The concept, however, has been in

existence in the West for centuries. Modernization, Westernization, and especially

Industrialization are other terms people have used when discussing economic

development. Although no one is sure when the concept originated, most people agree

that development is closely bound up with the evolution of capitalism and the demise of

feudalism." **

* See Glossary at the end of this for meanings

** R. Conteras, "How the Concept of Development Got Started" University of Iowa Center for

International Finance and Development E-Book

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Many theories exist regarding economic development which are given by prominent

sociologists of the earlier times. Among those theories, the theory of economic

development given by Walter Rostow given in 1960 is still well known today. Rostow’s

theory took account of frequent social changes and related them to development. He has

given five stages for economic development which are:

- The Traditional Society: This is the first stage of the society i.e. the primitive

stage where the economic activities are all centered on agricultural practices. The

productivity of humans is lower and a hierarchical structure exists in the society.

- The Preconditions for Take-Off: This comes in through industrial revolution.

When industrial revolution takes place, investment increases and secondary and

tertiary sectors of production develop. As a result a transition in the society takes

place to initiate development

- Take-Off: This is the stage where the ultimate economic growth takes place. The

main aspect of this period is the self sustained growth with no need of extra inputs

from outside. Few leading industrial sectors are enough to foster development in

the society.

- The Drive to Maturity: This is the stage where economic development leads to

other developments in the society. The investments n industrial sectors

significantly and technological changes are brought out. At the same time, social

and economic prosperity increase to a high extent.

- The Age of High Mass Consumption: This is the final stage in Rostow’s theory

where the society is now all developed and all the people live in prosperity. There

are abundant resources in the society and the consumers are provided with many

options to choose from i.e. they have more choices.

According to Rostow, through these five steps a society can achieve modernity. However

his theory was criticized by other sociologists that not all societies actually live in peace

and harmony as Rostow stated in his theory’s fifth stage because development is an

ongoing process which never comes to a stand still.

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Now let’s see how population growth is related to economic development. Population

growth can have both positive and negative effects on economic development of a

country.

The positive effects include:

- Population growth is related to technological advancements. Increasing

population will lead to technological changes that will be used to meet the rising

demand for goods and services

- Population growth creates a huge labour force and since labour is abundant in the

society, it becomes cheaper also

- Businesses will utilize the cheap labour and will provide them with more and

better job facilities

- Since labour is cheap, the extra money can be used in technological research and

development

- The technological improvements can provide and handle the extra demand for

goods and services needed to serve the rising population. This is because

technological improvements will result in increased production and can increase

the overall demand of the country, thus resulting in economic growth.

- Increase in the overall output of a country increases the per capita income of the

nation

- Increase in population growth that triggers economic development will increase

the income of the people of the country which increases overall spending in the

economy thus fostering growth

However some economists argued that an increased population does create some negative

effects at the start but it does lead to economic development. At the start of the increase

in population, when consumers increase, there is a greater demand for natural raw

materials. This will cause a shortage of goods and services and will trigger high prices in

the market. Then the nation will concentrate on finding out alternative raw material

sources. The search leads to cheaper raw materials which in return lead to cheaper

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products and the country will be able to satisfy the increasing demand of the overall

population. So the nation is left in a good condition and is said to achieve a stable state of

economic development.

On the contrary, other economists are mainly concerned about the negative consequences

of population growth on the economic growth of the country which include:

- Over population hampers the growth output per worker, this happens because the

other factors of production besides labour e.g. capital and land do not increase in

the same proportion as the labour force

- In families with many members, it is hard to save up some money as most of the

money will be spent in fulfilling the demands of the overpopulated family. Since

savings decrease, generation of new investment is hampered that leads to negative

economic growth

- The per capita economic growth decreases due to an increased population

- If the population of the country increases very rapidly, then the supply of goods

and services will be insufficient to feed the increasing population leading to

shortage problems

- The shortages lead to a rise in prices and since the income of the population

remains fixed, their purchasing power decreases, they cannot afford to buy the

high priced goods. This in turn lowers the demand for some goods in the market

- Increase in the population will lead to the depletion of natural resources which are

very limited. As natural resources become scarce, the overall production process

is hampered

- Increased population lead to a decrease in labour wages because the fixed amount

of capital investment has to be distributed among a large number of people and

when the income of the people decrease, poverty arises

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Case Study

Now let’s look at a case study of India. Did the large and massive population of India

help its economic development or not? This case study will be useful in finding the

answer to this question.

Case Study: Does India’s Population Growth have a positive effect on its Economic

Growth?*

India is one of the fastest growing developing countries of the world in terms of

economic growth. In the last couple of years, India’s economy has grown to a large

extent but at the same time India’s population as also grew. However, in recent years the

percentages of population growth got reduced and also have slowed down the rate of

growth. The population issue of India has been addressed by many international

organizations like UNFPA which highlighted the problems of a high population which

are poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, famine and social inequalities.

Despite the problems associated with a high population growth, India’s economy is still

experiencing positive growth. The growth is just not only in one sector; in fact the growth

is a combined one of all sectors including agriculture, industrial and financial sectors.

This is possible because India has sufficient capacity to provide jobs to its citizens. The

rate of employment in India is increasing every year, and the labour force in India is very

skilled and their rights are ensured by the law and order situation of the country. The

growth in the agricultural sector is also quite significant.

* Rohan Kothare, November 1999

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Industries have also grown due to the increase in the labour force but workers are paid a

lower salary than other countries. Due to the government subsidies provided in Indian

higher education, a large of number of professionals like doctors and lawyers are

increasing in the country. Now the question can arise is India getting benefits from its

huge population to sustain the economic growth that it experiences. Well some might say

that India is not getting all the benefits of a huge population, but at least India is receiving

some benefits from its population to foster economic growth.

Now the factors which highlight the model of India’s ever growing economy can be

considered. Due to India’s growing population, a labour force is created. The Indian

government through its spending policies strengthened the education system of the

country so that the young population could contribute to the Indian economy. With the

rise of education, India was also able to create job opportunities for its population. As

employment increased and more people started working the overall productivity

increased which meant that the output of Indian goods and services increased

significantly. This in turn met the national demands for consumption of the huge

population and the locally produced goods and services could be offered at a cheaper

price to the poor and the needy.

The overall economic situation in India led to micro and macro profit levels which helped

to increase Indian GDP to a great extent. Well overpopulation is seemed to be a demerit

for a country’s development, but India has successfully minimized the negative effects of

overpopulation and made it into a resource to advance the country forward. However,

India still suffers from poverty and malnutrition. But with the persistent economic growth

in the country, India will also be able to eradicate poverty and malnutrition completely

from its structure in the long run.

Since India had a huge population and sufficient amount of natural resources, it could

nurture it to promote economic growth. But not all developing countries have a large

population and are not “lucky” like India.

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The Bangladesh Perspective

After the case study of India, let’s talk about the situation in another developing country,

Bangladesh. Bangladesh is also a South East Asian country located just besides India. It

is a very small country but it has an exploding population. After its independence in

1971, the population increased at a very high rate, now this small county is home to 16

crore people. This rapid population increase can be explained by all the factors explained

earlier in this report which can be found of Pages 10, 11 and 12 of this report.

Bangladesh is one of the poor countries of the world, where maximum of the people live

below the poverty line and earn less than $1 US Dollar per day. The lack of education,

underestimation of women, child marriages, and lack of family planning knowledge has

led to an increase in the overall population of the country. Also the population is not

evenly distributed through out the whole country; more people tend to migrate to the

cities for a better life, making the cities more densely populated while the rural areas

remain under populated. So the effect of population growth is more in the cities where

most of the economic activities take place.

Bangladesh is blessed with a large labour force but the problem is since Bangladesh is a

small country with limited resources, it cannot provide job facilities for all its working

population so most of the manpower of the country is always under utilized. Also

majority of the labour force is unskilled and to train them up will take huge investments

which Bangladesh is unable to afford on its own. Bangladesh is heavily dependent on

foreign loans for economic development and these loans are creating extra burden on the

country. A large amount of the country’s production is going outside the country to pay

for the foreign loans. The labour wages are also not satisfactory; as a result clashes

between workers and capitalists often occur in Bangladesh.

Amidst all these adversities, Bangladesh is still achieving economic growth and

development on a small scale. The question might arise: How? Well what Bangladesh did

is that it exported its extra manpower to other countries which lack an optimum level of

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labour force. These exported manpower work outside the country, earn money and send

them back to Bangladesh as remittance. With the remittance money, the government is

able to fund various welfare activities in the country and achieve at least some economic

growth. Problems of inflation and the fact that poverty exists; Bangladesh is always a

failure to advance its economy to the next level.

The Mass Media Influence

The mass media is an intervening factor that can highlight issues relating to population

growth and economic development. The media has to adopt its policy for the public

interest to work for the development issues and the factors that affect of which population

growth and economic development issues are prominent. The media has a public duty to

highlight issues that are crucial to the country’s development. The media has to highlight

the population policy of the country’s government through its programs. The programs

have to be interactive enough so that the mass population can understand its message.

These programs must be shown continuously so that people can perceive the importance

of the program’s content and the issues highlighted in the program. As a result, the media

can help set a specific agenda through reinforcement.

The media can create public awareness campaigns of the issues affecting population

growth and economic development. The media can bring in experts and make them

discuss on the issues concerned.in front of the public via live programs. The media can

air educational and informational programs highlighting the consequences of a high

population growth and why economic development is important for the country. The

media can sponsor different events like documentary screening, photo exhibitions, art

shows and cultural shows relating to population growth and economic development.

Through its constructive role, the media can mould in public opinion and bring the whole

nation under one roof on the issue of population growth leading to economic

development.

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Now let’s see the mass media influence in Bangladesh on issues related to population

growth and economic development. The Bangladeshi media is quite influential and quite

strong enough especially the print media of newspapers. With the rise of several new tv

channels in the last few years, the power of the tv media has also increased in Bangladesh

significantly. More people are now shifting to tv channels for quick and instant news and

know the issues of the day.

The state run tv channel, Bangladesh Television (BTV) has played the pioneer role in

shaping public opinion on issues related to population growth. Bangladesh now needs to

reduce its fertility rates because it is over populated and a balance between the birth rates

and death rates is compulsory in the country. BTV has constantly from a very long time

aired programs highlighting family planning issues and what needs to be done to combat

the problems of a high population growth. At the start, these programs were not

welcomed by the general public because they were shy about family planning issues and

feared that adopting family planning programs will be against their religion. But

gradually when BTV went on airing these informative programs over and over again, it

was successful in reinforcing the idea in the minds of the general people that, population

growth is a huge problem for the country and people must adopt family planning

programs to help the country. With an urge to help the country and when people came to

realize that family planning is important, they started coming out of the box. This is

where the powerful influence of the media lies in, it can make the people believe a

specific issue and create a public opinion through interactive communication methods

which is quite hard to achieve using other methods and that is why the media is so

powerful, trustworthy and very convincing.

Besides family planning programs, almost all of the tv channels have daily talk shows

which sometimes talk about different development issues like population growth. The tv

channels also air various business and trade shows talking about different issues and

prospects related to economic growth and development of the country. In addition to the

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tv media, the print media is also constantly publishing articles relating to population

growth and economic development and is helping in shaping the public opinion process.

In order to address important issues like population growth and economic development,

the media has to play a direct role adopting a direct communication approach in order to

reach a mass audience, cover field events and highlight them on a national and

international level to create awareness. Only then the media can help to bring out positive

changes in the development of the country.

Conclusion

From the whole discussion in this report, it is clear that there is a relationship between

population growth and economic development. Population growth has both positive and

negative effects on economic development of a country. This influence of population

growth on economic development is more persistent in developing countries like India

and Bangladesh. Well population growth is desirable for any country to ensure an

optimum level of labour force, but overpopulation or a high increase in population is

mostly detrimental for economic development. That is why a country should be very

careful with its population policy and population level. According to the country’s

available space and resources, it should determine what level of population it can

maintain so that economic development can be possible. In countries where

overpopulation is a problem, the extra work force should be exported to other countries.

This will bring foreign currency for the domestic country with which it can foster

economic development in the country and also the population problem will be at ease to

some extent. Nevertheless, the relationship of population growth with economic

development is very complex and it varies from country to country. To conclude this

report, it can be said that a steady population growth is desirable for a country to bring in

economic development but a rapid population growth is harmful both in the short and

long run.

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Glossary

Birth rate: the ratio of live births in an area to the population of that area; expressed per

1000 population per year *

Death rate: the ratio of deaths in an area to the population of that area; expressed per

1000 per year *

Emigration Rate: the rate at which people are entering and settling into the domestic

country from a foreign country

Immigration Rate: the rate at which people are leaving the domestic country to settle

down in a foreign country

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total market values of goods and services produced

by workers and capital within a nation's borders during a given period usually 1 year *

Per capita income: the total national income divided by the number of people in the

nation *

* Definitions taken from WordNet at http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu

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Bibliography

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Asia: Academic Publishers, 1988

3) Nam, Charles B., Understanding Population Change: FE Peacock Publishers Inc.,

1994

4) Todaro, Michael P. and Stephen C. Smith, Economic Development: Pearson

Education, 2006

5) Portner, Claus Chr., Population and Economic Growth.

http://faculty.washington.edu/cportner/papers/MScDiss.pdf (accessed April 23,

2010)

6) Kothare, Rohan, Does India’s Population Growth have a positive effect on its

Economic Growth? http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~dluu/ps/rkothare99.pdf (accessed

April 23, 2010)

7) Word Net Web. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu

8) Wikipedia.Org. Economic Development, Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_development (accessed April 21, 2010)

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