GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY

• Demography


  The study of human population
• Demography affects each and every aspect of our lives – from the world economy and social policy to city planning and climate change
• Overpopulation


  The perils of
• Development planners see urbanization and industrialization as indicators of a developing society, but disagree on the role of population growth or decline in modernization
• Thomas Malthus


  Ideas in "An Essay on the Principle of Population" (1798)
• Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife

  Revived the idea and wrote "The Population Bomb"
• Overpopulation in 1970's and 1980's would bring global environmental disaster that lead to food shortage and mass starvation. They proposed that country like United States should take the lead on promoting global population control
• Recommendations for population control

  • Bizarre (chemical castration)
  • Policy-oriented (taxing an additional child and luxury taxes on child related products)
  • Monetary incentives (paying off men who would agree to the sterilized after 2 children)
  • Institution building (a powerful department of population and environment)
• The rapid increase of global population between 1955 and 1975
• Philippines, China, and India, initiated programs to control population growth due to concerns about resource scarcity, poverty, hunger, and political instability
• Economists and advocates believe the significance of promoting reproductive health, emphasizing access to contraceptives, abortion services, and vasectomy is crucial
• Supporters of reproductive health in Puerto Rico view access to contraception and family planning as instrumental in advancing their society, enabling individuals to make informed choices on family planning contributing to the country's modernization and development
• Extreme measures, including forced sterilization, have been implemented in countries like China, Vietnam, and Mexico as part of population control policies
• Various organizations, such as the United Nations Population Division (World Population Prospects: 2022 Revision), National Statistical Offices, and Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, are responsible for updating and monitoring world population growth figures across all countries
• Top 10 most populated countries (updated on July 16, 2023 from the 2022 UN revision)

  • India - 1,428,627,663
  • China - 1,425,671,352
  • United States - 339,996,563
  • Indonesia - 277,534,122
  • Pakistan - 240,485,658
  • Nigeria - 223,804,632
  • Brazil - 216,422,446
  • Bangladesh - 172,954,319
  • Russia - 144,444,359
  • Mexico - 128,455,567
• It's the economy, not the babies!

  Will a child be an economy asset or burden to the family and its country?
• For most, having a child is the symbol of a successful union, it also ensures that the family will have a success or generation that will continue its name
• Rural communities often welcome an extra hand to help in crop cultivation, particularly during planting and harvesting season
• Urbanized, educated, and professional families with two incomes, however, desire just one or two progenies
• The differing versions of family life determine the economic and social policies that countries craft regarding their respective populations
• The use of population control to prevent economic crises has its critics
• Neo-Malthusian theory of population

  Explains that the human population grows more rapidly than the food supply until famines, war, and disease reduce population and ecological collapse
• Betsy Hartman


  Director, Population and Development Program, Hampshire College, disagrees with the advocates of neo-Malthusian theory and accuses governments of using population control as a substitute for social justice and much-needed reforms such as land distribution employment provision of mass healthcare and emancipation
• However, countries in less developed regions of the world that rely on agriculture tend to maintain high levels of population growth
• The urban population has grown, but not necessarily because families are having more children but rather than the combination of the natural outcome of significant migration to cities by people seeking work in the more modern sector of society
• Today, 191 million people live in countries other than their own, and the United Nations projects that over 2.2 million will move from the developing world countries to the first world countries
• So, it's not the babies or the increase in population but rather the problem is the economy fluctuates
• Reproductive rights supporters argue that if population control and economic development were to reach their goals, women must have control over whether they will have children or not and when they will have their progenies (offspring)
• This correlation between family, fertility, and fortune has motivated countries with growing economies to introduce or strengthen their reproductive health laws including abortion
• High-income first world nations and fast-developing countries were able to sustain growth in part because women were given the power of choice and easy access to reproductive technologies
• In North America and Europe, 73% of governments allow abortion upon a mother's request. Moreover, the more educated a woman is, the better are her prospects of improving her economic position
• In 1960, Bolivia's average total fertility rate (TFR) was 6.7 children. In 1987, the Bolivian government put into effect a family planning program that included the legalization of abortion. In 1985, the TFR went down to 5.13 and further declined to 3.46 in 2008
• A similar pattern occurred in Ghana after the government expanded reproductive health laws out of the same concern as that of the Bolivian government. As a result, "fertility declined steeply ... and continued to decline after 1994"
• In 2014, the United Nations noted that the proportion of countries allowing abortion to preserve the physical health of a woman increased from 63% to 67%, and those to preserve the mental health of a woman increased from 52% to 64%
• Opponents regarded reproductive rights as nothing but a false front for abortion
• The religious wing of the anti-reproductive right flank goes further and describes abortion as a debauchery that sullies the name of God; it will send the mother to hell and prevent the baby from becoming human
• Unfailing pressure by Christian groups compelled the governments of Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and even Russia to impose restrictive reproductive health programs, including making access to condoms and other technologies
• Muslim countries do not condone abortion and limit wives to domestic chores. Senegal only allows abortion when the mother's life is threatened
• The Philippines, with a Catholic majority, now has a reproductive health law but conservative politicians have enfeebled it through budget cuts
• In the United States, the women's movement of the 1960s was responsible for the passage and judicial endorsement of a pro-choice law