Governments & Economists - dealing with population growth

Anna Osmanay & Gerasimos Kalesis

Anatolia College – The American College of Thessaloniki

Population Growth : ProblemWorld Population : 7 billion

In 2050 : More necessities

o Food

o Water

o Infrastructure

o Services

o Health care

Economical problems

World population growth and estimation from 1750 to 2050

Sustaining economic growthGovernments:

Introduction of policies Birth control

Family planning

Empowerment of women

Goal: Decrease - Population Growth Increase - Economic Growth

Sustaining economic growthEconomists:

Increase rate of productivity

-- Utilization of better technology

“Economic growth combined with technological progress could mean our energy sources are provided by renewable energy.”

Developed NationsPopulation - increasing in a declining rate

Maintenance of their economic growth

--Innovative ideasIncrease of competitivenessSupport of small and medium enterprises

“In United States two thirds of the 40 million jobs created over the last 30 years are made by such companies”

Less Developed NationsPopulation – very high rate of human population

(consist 80% of the global population)

--20% of the world's economies - Countries not developed economically

Exception: China -- experiencing high economic growth and a process of reforms over the past decades.

--Has opened its market to the global economy.

Less Developed NationsSustain of their economic growth

Education of its workers

Provision of an institutional framework

Political stability & government effectiveness

o control corruptiono quality regulations o proper laws o population growth

Trade in a global scale

Developed VS Underdeveloped Nations• Main Differences

Rich nations Poor nations Population (billions) 1 2.3 GDP per capita 30,000 2,100 Human Development Index High Low Annual population growth rate (%): 1996-2004 0.8 2.4 Annual growth rate of GDP per capita (%): 1966- 2004 2.4 1.8 Total fertility rate (TFR) 1.8 3.7 Adult literacy (%) > 95 58 (female litereacy) (%) (> 95) ( 48 ) Index of government corruption Low High Life expectancy at birth (years) 78 58 Under 5 mortality (per 1000) 7 120 Rural population (% of total population) 10 70 Agriculture's share in GDP (%) 5 25 Source: World Bank

Table 1: Various economic and demographic metrics for rich and poor nations.

Future: Underdeveloped Nations Overtaking Developed Nations?

Prevention of overexploitation of land, oceans & ground water

Utilization of more energy sources

Development of sustainable cities

Mitigate the impact of natural and man-made disasters

Conclusion

The comprehension of severity of the problem called growth of world population is very significant as assist in finding out new methods of sustaining the economic growth. Everyone should understand that population growth is a serious problem that should be solved by the utilization of the appropriate methods, sustaining economic growth.