GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY

• Demography


  Statistical study of human population
• Demography


  • Examines the size, structure and movement of the population over space and time
• Population trends


  • Agricultural population is declining
  • Urban populations have grown
  • Almost 200 million people live in other countries rather than their own
• Overpopulation


  Population growth will exhaust world food supply
• Proponents of overpopulation concerns

  • Thomas Malthus
  • Paul and Anne Ehrlich
• Recommendations for population control

  • Castration
  • Monetary incentives
  • Policy oriented (taxing a child)
  • Institution building
• After WWII, population growth rate rose
• Population control measures in different countries

  • China - one-child policy
  • India - forced sterilization
  • Vietnam and Mexico - coercive mass sterilization
• Population control as a substitute for social justice

  Land distribution, employment and emancipation
• Population growth aided economic development by spurring technological and institutional innovation and increasing supply of human ingenuity
• Megacities with population problems remain centers of economic growth
• Green Revolution as solution to Malthusian prediction
• Reproductive rights for women

  Women should be given power to pursue their vocations
• First World Countries' measure - giving women the power of choice
• As a result of reproductive rights, there was an increase in physical health and mental health among women in Bolivia and Ghana
• Opponents' views on reproductive rights


  • Reproductive right as false front of abortion
  • It actually endangers the life of the mother
• Western European countries impose restrictive reproductive health programs
• Muslim countries do not condone abortion and limit wives to domestic chores and delivering babies
• Philippines has reproductive health policy but enfeebled it through budget cuts and stalled its implementations
• Feminist perspective on population control


  Feminist opposed any form of population control as this is compulsory by nature. Thus, it does not empower women.
• Viewing poverty, environmental degradation as caused by overpopulation is wrong. Equally important factors such as unequal distribution of wealth, lack of public safety nets like universal health care and education should be accounted also.
• UN's stand over the matter
• Today's global population is 7.4 Billion, projected to be 9.5 Billion in 2050 and 11.2 Billion in 2100
• Median age is 30.1 for males and 29.4 for females
• 95% population growth will happen in developing countries
• FAO said food production should increase by 70%. Cereal production must increase to 3 billion tons. Meat production must go up to 200 million tons to reach 470 million tons.
• But, food supply is actually declining!
• FAO recommends that countries should increase investments in agriculture and craft long-term policies aimed at fighting poverty and to invest in research and development.
• UN suggests that countries must develop a comprehensive social service program.
• The POLITICAL WILL of the country is the challenge