Discuss the relationship between population and Development.

Discuss the relationship between population and Development.

Population has a twin role to play. Population as an active factor of production contributes in the production process and as a consumer generates demand for goods and services and helps in economic growth. Thus a larger population helps in increasing the growth rate.

 Growth Rate of Population:

The growth rate of population depends upon the birth rate (estimated as total number of birth per thousand of population). There is a reciprocal relationship between rate of growth of population of a country and its economic growth. On the one hand population growth of a country is effected by its economic growth and on the other economic growth too can be affected by population growth rate.

The number of people constitutes the size of population of that country at that time. This number, however, keeps on changing continuously through birth, deaths and immigration. Therefore, increase in the number of people during a fixed period of time, in a country, is called the growth rate of population.

The difference between birth rate and death rate during a year per 1000 population contributes to this growth. The rate of growth of population during a period is estimated as the ratio of increase in population during a period to the total population at the beginning of the period.

How to calculate the Growth Rate:

The standard formula for calculating growth rate is:

Growth Rate = growth in size / time

or

Gr= N/t

Here, Gr is the growth rate expressed as a number of individuals. N is the total change in population size for the entire time period, also expressed as a number of individuals. t is time, usually expressed in number of years. The formula is calculated the same way regardless of the unit of time used.

In order to calculate the overall growth rate, you first have to figure out N. This is done by subtracting the initial population (or P1) from the current population, or the population at the end of the time period you are using (or P2). Therefore:

N= P2 - P1

In 1980, the population in Lane County was 250,000. This grew to 280,000 in 1990. What is the annual percentage growth rate for Lane County?

Calculating Percent (Straight-Line) Growth Rates

The percent change from one period to another is calculated from the formula:

Where:

PR = Percent Rate
V_Present = Present or Future Value
V_Past = Past or Present Value

VPresent = 280,000
VPast = 250,000
N = 10 Years

(A) Effects of Population Growth Rate on Economic Growth

The effects of high growth rate of population on economic growth of developing countries can be explained by examining its effects on the resources of these countries. These resources are: Human resources, natural resources and capital (man-made) resources.

1.      Effects on Human Resources

As population supplies human resources, the large human resources are the sources of large potential labour force that can be both a source of strength and a source of weakness as well. However, labour alone cannot produce anything as production requires natural resources and capital too. For the engagement of large and fast increasing labour more and more other resources are needed.

In countries like India, where population is large and also there is shortage of capital, natural resources. India is unable to utilize even their existing labour force that is main cause behind the large level of unemployment.

The high rate of growth of population also creates problems in the process of improving the quality of human resources. As modern production techniques require highly skilled labour force. In this context, the literacy level is quite low in developing countries. Due to the already large size of population huge capital resources are required for removing illiteracy and for skill formations; this problem becomes more intense because of the fast rate of growth of population.

2.      Effects on Natural Resources

Natural resources can be divided in two categories (i) exhaustible and (ii) non- exhaustible.

Exhaustible resources include land surface, minerals, forests and water, etc. a large part of the land area, fixed one, of a country is used for agriculture. The high growth rate of population creates many problems by increasing pressure of labour force on land. It results in further division of land holdings, that ultimately and adversely affect the productivity of the land, sometimes further subdivisions of the land lead to the wastage of land itself.

The fast growing population on the one hand and lack of work opportunities on the other results in more people than required for working in agriculture. This increasing pressure on agricultural land thus results in unemployment.

In addition, fast urbanization creates many other problems such as congestion, slums, insanitation population etc. One of the most crucial factors that creates a land related problem in the process of Urbanization is the migration of the people to urban areas in search of work. The intensity of the problem can be comprehended from the fact that the pressure of population of land has been steadily increasing resulting in the increase of density from 117 per sq. km. in 1951 to 382 in 2011. Bihar is most thickly populated (1106) followed by west Bengal (1028). All these problems cast negative effect on economic growth.

3.      Effects on Capital Formation

In economic growth of any country capital plays a very important and more or less a decisive role. A large part of resources for investment that developing countries generate are eaten away by their fast growing population as fast growth rate of population results in rapid increase in the requirements of consumption.

The high growth rate of population reduces the supply of these resources for raising the per capital income and quality of life of people in developing countries, due to which economic growth of these countries are adversely affected.

 (B) Effects of Economic Growth on the Growth rate of population

Numerous studies on the economies of the world have displayed that as in the underdeveloped countries both the birth rate and the death rate remain high, the gap between birth rate and death rate remains low, hence the rate of growth of population in such countries is slow. In these countries the income level is so low that malnutrition and undernourishment have become a permanent feature. Medical and sanitation facilities are nearly non-existent. Even safe drinking water is not available to a very large section of the population.

When economic growth takes place, the income levels start increasing, that eventually lead to improvement in standard of living. Medical and sanitation facilities improve and some diseases are eradicated; all these have a direct effect on death rate that starts falling rapidly.

As economic growth catches momentum, there appears a further improvement in the level of income and nutritional levels. Literacy  level rises and standard of living improves. There is a greater acceptance of small family norm. All these changes affect both the death rate as well as birth rate. During this phase of economic growth, through which India is passing, the decline in birth rate is faster. As a result of this faster decline in birth rate and the death rate stagnating at a low level, the gap between birth rate and death rate is again very small, clearly indicating that the rate of growth of population is very slow, a trait that all developing countries share and show how much is it important to create a balance between economic growth and population growth to achieve the final aim of creating a developed society.

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