Is it good or bad for us?
According to DailyMail;
Africa’s population is set to double to more than 2.4billion over the next few decades due to improved health care and medicines, a new study found.
Sub-Saharan Africa – the world’s poorest region – will record the largest amount of population growth of any area in the world between now and 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).
But the massive baby boom could put huge strain on resources and fledgling economies in some of the world’s most deprived areas, the PRB warned.
And the projected growth in population assumes that family planning will become more widespread in regions where, for religious or cultural reasons, contraception has not been widely adopted.
The 10 countries worldwide with the highest fertility are all in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, women in sub-Saharan Africa average 5.2 children, a rate that rises as high as 7.6 in Niger.
And improved access to medicine and health care mean millions more of these children will now survive to adulthood…
Wendy Baldwin, the organisation’s president and CEO,said: ‘Nearly all of that growth will be in the 51 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the region’s poorest.
‘Rapid population growth makes it difficult for economies to create enough jobs to lift large numbers of people out of poverty.’
In addition to high birth rates, the region’s population is also quite young, with 43 percent of the population below age 15.
Carl Haub, senior demographer and co-author of the data sheet, said: ‘Given its youthful population, future population growth in Africa will depend upon the degree to which the parents of tomorrow use family planning.
‘The projections that we cite assume that family planning will become more widespread. If not, Africa’s population will grow more rapidly, further constraining efforts to address poverty, create jobs, and protect the environment.’
This year’s Data Sheet provides detailed information on 20 population, health, and environment indicators for more than 200 countries, and has a special focus on wealth and income inequality.
Developing countries tend to have wide income gaps between rich and poor that are associated with dramatic differences in fertility and health.
In Uganda, women from the poorest fifth of families have twice as many children as those from the wealthiest fifth.
And children from the poorest families are much more likely to die before turning 5 than their counterparts in the wealthiest families.
PRB’s 2013 World Population Data Sheet shows the stark contrasts between rich and poor countries, illustrated by comparing Niger and the Netherlands.
Even though the two countries have almost the same population size today, Niger is projected to nearly quadruple its population from about 17 million today to 66 million in 2050. The Netherlands’ population will likely grow very slowly from 17 million to 18 million over that same time.
At the root of this ‘demographic divide’ are differences in the average number of births per woman and the share of the population in their childbearing years.
Niger’s total fertility rate of 7.6 lifetime births per woman is more than four times the Netherlands’ rate of 1.7 per woman.
One-half of Niger’s population is younger than age 15, compared with 17 percent of the Netherlands’ population…
In my opinion population growth is good…
IF and only IF
african leaders are determined to better the living standard in terms of infrastructure, education, food security etc …
if africas resources are used by africans on the african continent and african resources are not exported to europe,america asia or elsewhere…….
then POPULATION GROWTH WILL ALWAYS BE A GOOD THING
and personally its always westerners who are giving poulation growth a bad name.
What surprises me about western experts is that they worry about africas population growth but are advocating/ are worried about europes population decline.
They should not forget that europe got industrialised because of POPULATION GROWTH.
And world history has always shown that people with a big population and good structures always succeed.
Nevertheless i am an ADVOCATE FOR POULATION GROWTH and africans should make their own research before they listen to western, asian experts because they are promoting their interests first before that of africa… think about colonialism, imperialism, slavery, white supremacy, segregation etc.
@Yahoozeee, hey, bro. this is a lie,, wondering if you had environmental science class when you were in high school. what you wrote doesn’t make sense to me.. please population growth is a kill to the world and the earth. do your research online or go to the library. well Good luck and destroy the earth and we all gonna burn with global warming,. b4 you talk about population consider the earth you live in and the effect on it. and African Poverty and Asian Traffic
omg this is really bad. really really bad. We Africans are dieing with poverty and we yet still giving birth. what are they gonna eat?? where are they gonna sleep/ what are they gonna do. compare America or Europe to Africa. who has the most population , the more population Africa has the more risk to Africa and the world as a whole. 1. consider global warming, water pollution, health issues alot more/.. even now that population are least in Africa people don’t get food or water to bath or drink.. African Love sex too bad,. damn.. watch out make the world better place.
O@kofienock, kofi u cqn not compare europe or america to africa because they are consuming nearly half of the worlds resources and then wondering why other countries especially african arent developed. Take Europes or Americas consumer habits regarding to meat .
For example countries like Brazil have to satisfy the west growng demand for meat by depleting their rainforests and growing soybeans for export….
Kofi think about this…how much resources does a famer in ethiopia with his six use in comparison to someone in europe with two kids ?
Compare the HDI of the two countries and their use of resources.
Arent western Mncs not robbing our resources to their countries.
Dont they export their electronic waste to us in Ghana which also causes Co2 emissions and health complications if that electronic waste gets burned ?
I think africas problems are mainly economical and political.
And with regards to sex. This is also not true…….do u know the amount of porn they watch ? They are. Also more prkmiscous than. Look at their adverts every third advert is about sex.
you will not understand till you know the effect,,. dont talk about other stuffs.. we talking about population.
i mean population .. http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-the-effects-of-population-growth.htm