The mainstream press reports poverty and famine in the third world as if it were the fault of the poor themselves by causing overpopulation. Maxy Newton looks at the reality behind the term overpopulation.
The role played by capitalism conis overpopulated. Across the world, and increasingly in the third world, huge cities exist where the poor are forced into living in the most crowded and least healthy ghettos.
One sociologist has argued that "overpopulation is not a matter of too many people, but of the unequal distribution of resources. The fundamental issue is not population control, but control over resources and the very circumstance of life itself."
Whole continents such as Africa are forced to repay huge proportions of their income servicing debts from the IMF, World Bank, or other global financial institutions. The question of population is linked to who India, late 1960s: a sterilisation
Population
Population density
Fertility rate
Infant mortality (1-4 years)
Life expectancy
Pop below poverty line
GDP per capital
controls the world's resources. Take for instance, two African countries with very different economic circumstances, Ghana and South What is noticeable is the wealth of each country in the form of GDP per capita, with South Africa having more than seven times the wealth of Ghana. Yet Ghana is less densely populated than South Africa, whilst the fertility rate of Ghana is double that of South Africa, and its life expectancy is higher This suggests that the number of children women have is not related to population density, but to infant mortality (which in Ghana is almost double that of South Africa, and general poverty. Rapid population growth in developing countries is linked with poverty, third world debt, hunger, high infant mortality, fertility rate, ill-health and poor infrastructure. So what are the links between population and the distribution of people and resources? Some people measure "overpopulation" simply by the population density of an area or the amount of available land per person. A larger population could be seen as an asset or a drain for a particular country, depending on factors such as economic, cultural, social organization, and lifestyle expectation. or example, Mexico can be consid Tered overpopulated because of its economic problems, but Japan which is more densely populated than Mexico, is not - because it is the second largest economy in the world, despite its own Ghana 40,583,573 36 per sq km 3.5 children per female 49 per 1000 19% 31% US$ 2900
the issue of overpopulation is not a matter of numbers of people per square mile, but a problem of human welfare and development. The world population in the year 1998 amounted to 6 billion people, and 80% of the population came from low income countries. was higher in lower income countries than that of the higher income countries. The question is why? the high income countries to be high, since they would be able to cope with distribution widening: population growth of the lowincome countries averages 2.6 percent. This is compared to the growth of the western world averaging 0.1 percent, while many advanced economies face a decline in birth rate and ageing populations. decade-long economIC CrIsIS number of deaths of infants under one year
So. the year. Yet health is a major factor that contributes to infant mortality, and this in turn is linked to poverty dards. 20,636,000 84 per sq km 6 children per female 81 per 1000
possible losses. US$390 This indicated that the population growth Surely we would expect the population of of resources and food. However the gap is The Infant Mortality Rate is defined as the of age in a given year per 1000 live births in
The biggest determinant of infant but high
mortality and life expectancy is not
the existence of high-tech hospitals and health care, but living stancaused by the name metal. he way to reduce ty of a country is poverty to increase household income for the poor, • • providing clean water, sanitation and basic health care. But in the absence of these meas ures, some have argued that the more underfives die from diseases that relate to poverty and malnutrition the more likely are parents to have more children to compensate for In developed countries with a vast improved health service and 15, compared with Aid agencies that
nations. believe reducing
racist one. the birth rate will reduce poverty
poverty. misunderstand the problem: the W cause is not overpopulation, mortality rates
•• education, overpopulation is not a problem, as in turn a good health service reduces death. Today because of relatively high infant mortality rates and the AIDS epidemic, Africa has a life expectancy of 47 years whilst in the high income countries (Western world) life expectancy averages 78years.
In ten African countries under-5 mortality rates increased in the decade 1990-2000. 23 of the 49 African countries with data had a lower life expectancy in 1999 than 1990. In 1990, over half of all children in the global poorest 20 per cent died before the age of
among the richest 20 per cent. But there is also a big difference in the causes of death in the poorest countries: in 1996 infectious and parasitic diseases were responsible for 43 per cent of deaths in developing countries, but just 1.2 percent in developed
The notion of controlling population by controlling fertility in the third world is a
Aid agencies that believe reducing the birth rate will reduce poverty misunderstand the problem: the cause is not overpopula. tion, but high mortality rates caused by
rithin education, agencies nave been set up to educate people on the use of contraception, as a way of reducing fertility. These measures, economists believe, will help reduce the population problems in some low-income countries. Although sex education programmes have been around for the past 20-years there is no sign of improvement
Colonialism also contributed to the unevenness of the world population, when the slave trade de-populated Africa. People were forcibly put on ships and sent to the west to work as slave labour. Through this process, the population in Africa was reduced and the western population grew.
In my view of this discussion, population growth and its interpretation can mean dif ferent things. The connection between wealth distribution and population needs to be underlined
The 19th century produced a whole generation of apologists for colonialism. One of the best-known, Thomas Malthus, argued that the poor are to blame for producing more children because of their own igno rance and lack of foresight
But as we have seen, populations do not cause lack of resources. On the contrary, a desperate lack of resources affects the world's population disproportionately, with the poor suffering the brunt.