The Population - Resource relationship *AS*

Links between population growth and economic development in a country

A growing population can either be good or bad for an economy. It can be negative for the economic development of a country, because it will mean a pressure on services & resources and a large youthful population will become an economic burden. It can also be beneficial to a country, as it will mean a larger consumer market and more taxes for the government to spend on services.

Changes in demographic indices over time

Indices: Birth Rate, Death Rate, Infant Mortality Rate, Fertility Rates, Dependency Ratios, Doctors per 1000, Life expectancy, Hospital beds per 1000, Obesity rates, spending per person and GDP.

USA Indices: Obesity rate (30.6%), Hospital beds per 1000 (3.3 per 1000), Drug access (95%), Plastic surgery procedures (90992) and spending per person on health ($4271).

Population and the resource relationship

·      This relates to the carrying capacity of a country

·      The roles of constraints: War and climatic hazards

·      It’s in relation to sustaining population change

Malthusian theory to population change

Thomas Malthus published the Malthusian theory of population growth in 1798. It predicted that population growth would be are doom in comparison to the number of resources available. He said that population would grow until it reached the limit of food supply after which there would be poverty and widespread famine. He believed that population increase by multiplication, whereas food production increased arithmetically. He believed ‘checks’ helped us to understand the population-resource relationship.

Positive checks (would balance out this population growth (increased death rate)): Inadequate food, famine, disease and war.

Negative Checks (Prevented the birth rate from increasing): delayed marriages, abstaining from sex and a reduced fertility rate.

There is much evidence to support his theory including: The Rwanda genocide if 1994 which claims a high population density and lack of arable land led to the massacres, The collapse of society of Easter Island which was due to the overuse of resources which created tribal wars, the creation of government constraints to prevent overuse of resources, natural hazards such as flooding in Thailand in 2011 and Famine on the Horn of Africa.

Though Malthus did not account for: New technology such as the Green Revolution, the opening up of new land such as Australia and NZ (which were not properly explored by European societies), Irrigation techniques and the reduction of population growth in MEDC’s.