Chapman, W. (2019, July 10). Africa’s Population Explosion Will Hurt Efforts to Fight Poverty. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2019-07-10/africa-to-lead-world-in-population-growth.

 

Africa is expected to lead the world in population growth by the end of the century, with Nigeria, D.R. Congo, and Tanzania projected to have the greatest growth. While the increase of population might help these countries’ economic growth, it might also lead to an increase of unemployment and lack of resources. “The effects that the projected population growth will have on African countries is uncertain” according toMark Hugo Lopez, director of Global Migration and Demography Research for Pew. With Africa’s heavy population increase, regions like Europe and Asia are shrinking. They also have to face the issue of an aging population, in which economies can’t sustain themselves with a smaller workforce while caring for the elderly. 

 

Growth in developing nations is expected as they’re in the period where health care is more accessible so the child mortality rate is higher, but they still have the custom of larger families. Africa and India are the best examples of this, this can be beneficial in the sense of economic growth. But there are many obvious downsides to this, especially in developing countries poverty and hunger is a problem. So with more people these problems will only get worse. Environmentally the same trend is seen, more people require more resources and food which has a negative impact on the environment. But from an environmental standpoint, the growth of western countries is much more of a concern. Since the average citizen of a western country has a much larger footprint than an average citizen of a developing country. So it makes you think which is worse, heavy increase in a developing country or gradual increase in a developed country?