ADDRESSING POPULATION ISSUES
CHAPTER 9
Women at the
Dakalaia Health
Clinic in Egypt
learn about
Family Planning
and birth control
Read Success story of family planning in Egypt Page
number 196
Overview of Chapter 9
• Population and Quality of Life
– Population and Chronic Hunger
– Economic Effects of Population Growth
• Reducing the Total Fertility Rate
– Culture and Fertility
– Social and Economic Status of Women
– Family Planning Services
• Government Policies and Fertility
– China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Europe
• Achieving Population Stabilization
What does 7 Billion mean?
what does 7 BILLION mean?
See all the pictures
Public residential buildings are seen in Po Lam, one of the "satellite towns" in Hong
Kong, on September 14, 2011. This southern Chinese city is described as a concrete
forest, famous for the number of high-rise commercial and residential towers.
About 25 percent of the world's tallest 100 residential buildings stand in the
territory. (Reuters/Bobby Yip) #
People gather to get water from a huge well in the
village of Natwarghad in the western Indian state of
Gujarat on June 1, 2003. (Reuters/Amit Dave)
Workers remove floating garbage from Three Gorges
reservoir area in Yunyang County, China, on October
24, 2010. (Reuters/China Daily)
Motorists crowd at a junction during rush hour in Taipei, on October 29,
2009. There are more than 8.8 million motorcycles and 4.8 million cars on
Taiwan's roads and nearly all motor vehicles and inhabitants are squeezed
into a third of the island's area.
(Reuters/Nicky Loh)
Residents crowd in a swimming pool to escape the summer
heat during a hot weather spell in Daying county of Suining,
China, on July 4, 2010.
(Reuters/Stringer)
Population and Quality of Life
• Difficult to meet basic needs in
developing countries
• Problems associated with
overpopulation:
– Environmental degradation
– Hunger
– Persistent poverty
– Economic stagnation
– Urban deterioration
– Health issues
LDC
HDC
Rapid Population Growth
Pop clock
Earth in Peril
Impact of large population growth
Carrying Capacity
The maximum number of
individuals of a given species that
a particular environment can
support for an indefinite period,
assuming no changes in the
environment
• Overuse of land can cause a
decrease in carrying capacity
• Uncertain what the carrying
capacity of the earth is for
humans
Population and Chronic Hunger
• Food security
– Condition in which
people do not live with
chronic hunger and
malnutrition
Effects of Chronic Hunger?
•
•
Weakened immune system
Illness and disease
•
•
•
•
Malaria
Measles
Diarrhea
Acute respiratory illness
FOOD INSECURITY=800million
Intermitent
FOOD INSECURITY= 2 billion
Famine and Hunger
World Hunger Facts
• 1.02 billion people in the world are hungry.
• 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day.
• 27 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely
underweight in the developing world.
• Nearly one in three people die prematurely or have disabilities due to
poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies.
• One in nearly seven people do not get enough food to be healthy,
making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health
worldwide.
Population and Chronic Hunger
Solving the Food Problem….
– Control population growth
– Promote economic development of
developing countries without adequate food
supplies
– Provide access to food and land resources
to those who live in areas without them
Is Population Growth Good for Economics?
• Two viewpoints from economists:
1. Population growth stimulates economic
development and technological innovation
2. Rapidly expanding pop. hampers developmental
efforts
• Most observations support the second
viewpoint
• Developmental efforts are also hampered by
debt from past development attempts
Reducing the Total Fertility Rate
In 1960 TFR was 7.0
In 2007 TFR is 3.1
Three major influences on total fertility
rate
1. Cultural traditions
2. Social & economic status of women
3. Family planning
Read Culture and fertility Page number 201 and 202 and share your
thoughts
Cultural
Traditions
• Culture influences and
controls individuals’
behaviors
• Marriage age
• Couple is expected to
have large number of
children
– Due to high infant and
child mortality rates
• Children often work in
family business
– Provide support for aging
parents
• Religious values
Social & Economic Status of Women
• Gender inequality is common worldwide
• Disparities
– Political participation
– Social status
– Economic status
– Health status
– Legal rights
– Education
– Employment and
earnings
Illiteracy in 2002
Single most important factor affecting high total fertility rates is low status of
women
Marriage Age and Fertility
• The total fertility rate is affected by the
average age women marry, which is
determined by the laws and customs of the
society in which they live.
• In Sri Lanka the average age at marriage is 25,
and the average number of children per
woman is 2.0, whereas in Bangladesh the
average age at marriage is 17, and the average
number of children born per woman is 3.
Microcredit Programs
This Bangladeshi woman feeds
chicken at her poultry farm. She
received her first microcredit loan
to buy a few chickens 30 years
ago and has built the farm into a
thriving business.
Read more on microcredit Page
number 203.
How do you think this can affect
population growth?
MICROCREDIT
Educational Opportunities and Fertility
• Women with more education
–
–
–
–
Marry later
Have fewer children
Delays the first childbirth
Opens the door to many career
Opportunities
Family Planning Services
• In many countries men make reproductive
decisions regarding contraceptives
– Family planning services offer information to
both men and women on:
Parenting
Sexuality
Contraception STDs
Contraceptive Use Among Married Women
of Reproductive Age
Greater contraceptive use (green bars) among married women of reproductive
age correlates with a lower fertility rate ( red bars) Data are for the year 2006.
Government Policies and FertilityChina
• Largest population in the world
• Controversial Family Planning Policy
– 1971- Chinese Government pursued birth
control seriously, (It urged couples to marry
later, increasing space between children, and
limit the number to two)
– 1979- Incentives to promote later marriages
and one-child families
• Medical care, schooling for child, preferential
housing, retirement funds
– Brought about rapid and drastic decrease in
fertility
Government Policies and FertilityChina
• Law – controversial and unpopular
– Compromised freedom of choice
– Social pressure to abort a second child
– Pressure to abort/kill female first child
Chinese culture is biasesd toward male
children)
•
o
More boys than
girls in China
Law more relaxed
in rural China
Government Policy and Fertility- India
• Severe population pressure
– 1950- first country with governmentsponsored family planning
• Did not work due to language/cultural barriers
– 1976- introduced incentives and compulsory
sterilization
• Unpopular and failure
– Recent years- government focused on
education
• Much more effective, but TFR still above
replacement level
Government Policy and Fertility - India
• Population has pressure has caused the
deterioration of India’s environment in the
past few decades, and 805 of Indians live
below the official poverty level.
• Population experts predict that India’s
population will soon exceed China’s.
• This will exacerbate India’s poverty,
environmental degradation, and economic
underdevelopment.
Government Policy and FertilityMexico
• Young age structure
– Huge potential for population growth: 33%
of population is under age 15
• Positive growth momentum
• 1974- government imparted educational
reform, family planning, health care
– Very successful
Government Policy and FertilityNigeria
• Population challenge
– Largest population of any African country
• Very high reproductive potential: 43%
of population is less than age 15
• Current National Population Policy
– Improving health care
– Population education
Government Policy and Fertility- Europe
• Population concern
– Proportion elderly
people in population is
increasing
– Due to low TFR
• Decrease in population
could cause decrease
economic growth
The Millennium Development Goals
• Page numbers 209 and 210
Achieving Population Stabilization
• How can developing country governments help?
– Increase $$ allotted to pubic health and family planning
services
– Education on affordable, safe, effective methods of birth
control
– Increase average level of education
• Especially for women
• How can developed country governments help?
– Provide financial support
– Supporting research and development of new birth control
methods