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4 Population

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4 views8 pages

4 Population

Uploaded by

Lestor Narib
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 4

Population
18 July
2024

1
Consequences of rapid population
growth:
• Bad (changes age
composition):
– Strain on natural resource base
– Increases pressures for jobs
– Reduces food production gains per capita
– Contributes to pollution
– Strains the capacity of schools and other
social services
– Reduced savings and investment

• Good:
– Cost of services per person can decline
– Expands the size of the market
– Supply of labour

2
Demographic transition:
• A demographic transition typically occurs in:
– First phase:
• an initial period of high birth and death rates
– Second phase:
• is followed by a period in which both death and birth rates
decline but the death rate decline more rapidly.
– During this period, rapid and increasing population growth
rates occur.
– Third phase:
• Eventually the birth rates decline more rapidly than death
rates and the rate of increase in population decreases.
• This happens when a country moves from a developing
to a developed stage.
• To understand how demographic transition can be
completed without rising death rates, we need to
examine causes of fertility changes and how they can be
influenced by policy 3
Causes of fertility changes:
• Parental motivation – people receive pleasure and emotional
satisfaction from children
• Tastes
• Religion & Culture
• Economic & social factors (income, literacy, life expectancy)-
account for 60% of variations in fertility changes in LDC
• Family planning education & Access to birth control
• Costs to raise children may be low & Consumption benefit
• Children seen as an investment
• Mortality is high
• Female education
• Urbanization – income opportunities for young children in
informal sectors

4
Causes of Rural-to-Urban Migration
• People are pushed out of rural areas by
poverty and desperation, & pulled to cities by
hope and opportunity.
• Migration is a natural reflection of the
economic transformation from Agriculture to
Industry & services in a developing country
1. Expectation of increased economic opportunities
(salaries and access to goods/services)
2. Landlessness and rural poverty
3. Natural calamities
4. Lack of educational opportunities
5. Unequal public services provision
6. Persistent risk of crop failure
5
Consequences of Rural-to-Urban
migration
– Economies of scale result -( concentration of
suppliers and consumers for industry and public
goods )
– Long-term economic growth -(Innovative and
knowledge intensive industries are more likely to
form and grow in high population density areas
• However Cities grow too large, too quickly:
– Substandard housing
– Poor sanitation
– Lack of other services (education)
– Farm output has not been affected due to
↑population growth
• However some rural areas lose the brightest and most
educated workers.

6
SA Population Statistics
• Refer to the yearly statistical releases ( Stats SA: NSA)

7
Preparation
• CH5
• Economic
Transformation
and Growth

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