Population Growth and Demography Overview

Human Population Growth

• The human population grew very slowly for a long time due to high infant mortality rates and limited medical technology.
• It was only about two centuries ago that the population growth pattern changed, with new discoveries in medical science leading to a dramatic decrease in the death rate.

Factors Affecting Population Growth

• The birth-rate and death-rate are the two most basic factors in demography.
• The birth-rate expresses the number of children born per 1000 people per year.
• The death-rate indicates the number of people who die per 1000 per year.
• Population growth or decline is caused by the difference between the number of births and deaths over a given period.

Historical Context

• For thousands of years, humans lived in a primitive way, with life being difficult due to limited agricultural, medical, and industrial technologies.
• Before modern farming methods, making a living from the soil was hard, and bad crops could lead to famine and death.
• Illnesses like influenza could be fatal, and childbirth was a hazardous process.

Population Growth in the 20th Century

• The human population grew dramatically in the 20th century, with the number of people on Earth increasing from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 2.7 billion in 1950.
• Demographers estimate that the Earth's population will be over 6.1 billion by the end of the century.

Challenges in Controlling Population Growth

• Reducing the birth-rate is not as easy as it seems, due to religious, social, and economic reasons why some parents do not want to control the number of children they have.
• In some less developed parts of the world, many children are needed to help work the land or earn wages that supplement the family income.
• To halt population growth in such areas, it will first be necessary to raise the standard of living, so that parents do not need a large family.

Learn about the dramatic growth of the human population over the years and the basics of demography, such as the birth-rate and death-rate. Explore how the Earth's population has increased from 1.6 billion in 1900 to over 6.1 billion by the end of the century.