Population and Mobility

• Demography


  The statistical study of human populations
• Population


  The number of persons occupying a certain geographic area, drawing subsistence from their habitat, and interacting with one another
• China and India are the most populated states in the world
• Half of humanity live in the Asian continent
• By 2027 India will have more population compared to China
• Breakdown of the world's population

  • 17% in Africa (1.3 billion)
  • 10% in Europe (750 million)
  • 8% in Latin America and Caribbean (650 million)
  • 5% in Northern America (370 million)
  • 5% in Oceania (43 million)
• By 2100, the world's population will be 11.2 billion
• Africa will be the fastest growing continent due to its high rate of population growth and large number of young people
• Europe will have declining population due to its fertility rate being below the level required for full replacement of the population
• Factors that cause an increase in the world's population


  • Fertility
  • Mortality
  • International migration
• Fertility


  The amount of reproduction among women of reproductive ages, usually expressed in terms of number of children born by women in ages 15-49
• Influx of economic migrants and refugees have a strong impact on the receiving or host states
• Decision to have children


  An economic question - whether the children will be an asset or a burden
• Rural communities tend to have more people compared to urban communities
• Rural communities


  Basically agricultural in nature, families tend to have more children as they need additional hands to work in the fields
• Rural families


  View multiple children and large kinship networks as critical investments, as married children can take over the farms and grandparents can care for grandchildren
• Urban communities


  Tend to have lower population as couples are busy with work/career and do not have ample time for personal lives or families
• Urban couples usually have 1-2 children as they are committed to their profession and do not have time for parenting
• Urban slum areas are often characterized by families having many children as the success of their small family business depends on how many members can hawk their wares on the streets
• Agricultural states tend to have more population compared to industrialized states, although industrial states also have increasing population due to international migration
• Food security


  When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life
• Food security has four basic components: food availability, food access, food utilization, and food stability
• Rapid increase in world population compromises the four components of food security
• The vast majority of the hungry (780 million people) live in developing regions, with Central and Western Africa facing a huge portion of undernourished people
• Population growth simultaneously increases the number of mouths to feed while threatening food output through climate change, ocean acidification, and other global ecological stressors
• Sustainable development


  The thought that as human beings continue to live in societies, they always consider that they are not to utilize everything in nature to satisfy their needs at present, and a significant amount of resources for the future generation has to be maintained
• Population growth slows progress towards sustainable development goals as efforts to implement the SDGs have not kept pace with the rapid human population growth
• Population growth can threaten developmental efforts as the globe is not big enough to accommodate the increasing number of human beings
• Reducing population growth is the most obvious measure to slow down its ill effects to the globe
• One possible solution to the rapid population growth is for every state to have population control programs
• The basis for population control programs globally was the thinking that the vital resources of a state can be used for its economic progress and not diverted and wasted to feeding more mouths
• Through the leadership of the UN, advocates of population control demand for universal access to modern contraception like use of condoms, taking pills, allowing abortion and vasectomy
• Population growth can threaten developmental efforts
• The globe is not big enough to accommodate the increasing number of human beings
• The choices of today's population will determine the availability of food in the near future
• Population control programs


  1. Every state to have

  2. Basis is thinking that vital resources can be used for economic progress and not diverted to feeding more mouths

  3. Advocates demand for universal access to modern contraception like use of condoms, taking pills, allowing abortion and vasectomy
• Not all states have access to contraception, and not all citizens are amenable of using such
• In Africa, where population grows faster amidst existing hunger and malnutrition, only 1 in 4 couples use modern contraception
• In most places contraception is not even available
• Gender advocates globally assert to give right to the woman to choose whether to have children or not, and when to have them