Population

For other uses, see Population (disambiguation).

Distribution of world population in 1994.

Key

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. In ecology the population of a certain species in a certain area is estimated using the Lincoln Index. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals from other areas. Normally breeding is substantially more common within the area than across the border.

In sociology, population refers to a collection of human beings. Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population.

Population Profile The population is measured as an advantage for the European industrialized countries, where the population is diminishing. However, for the developing countries like India, population explosion is a curse and population is injurious to the development of the country and its civilization. The developing countries are already facing lots of problems like, lack in their resources, increased poverty, malnutrition, and other problems. Population explosion further deteriorates the situation. The main factors affecting the population change are the birth rate, death rate, population pyramid and migration. In 1952, India was the first country in the world, to launch a national programme, emphasizing family planning, to the extent necessary for reducing birth rates "to stabilize the population at a consistent level, with the requirement of national economy". In this link a study on population profile is, in fact, thought provoking.

Definition Abundant concepts are used in the population profile. A few of the concepts can be defined in the following ways. According to Webster’s dictionary the literal meaning of population is “the total number of people or inhabitants in a country or constituency”. Similarly the perfect meaning of population explosion is “a pyramiding of numbers of a natural population”. As stated by Miller, the birth rate is the ratio between births and individuals in a specified population and with in a specific period of time. The death rate is the ratio between the number of deaths and individuals in a specified population and time. according to prof.M.S.Narasimha Murthy population is the total number of people who are leaving in specific area or the place, including babies, kids, boys girls, ladies, gentlemen aged, sick, handicapped people and so on and so forth. Migration is the number of people moving in, that is immigration, or out, that is emigration of a country, place or locality. Density of population is the total number of people who live within per square kilometer. A population pyramid, also called "age pyramid", is a horizontal bar graph that illustrates the distribution of different age groups in a population, showing the number of males on the left and the number of females on the right. A population pyramid, also called an age structure diagram, is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population of a country or region of the world, which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing. Population pyramid typically consists of two back-to-back bar graphs, with the population plotted on the X-axis and age on the Y-axis, one part showing the number of males and another part showing females in a particular situation. Males are conventionally shown on the left and females on the right, and they may be measured by raw number or as a percentage of the total population.

Theories of population Several theories are found in the field of population. The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was an English scholar. His theory is popularly called Malthusian theory of population. According to this theory of population, the population increases in a geometrical ratio, whereas food supply increases in an arithmetic rate. This difference would lead to widespread poverty and starvation. This would be checked by natural calamities such as disease, high infant mortality, famine, war etc. According to this theory there are two checks to control the population: preventative and positive checks. Preventative means control in birth rate, and uses of different methods to control birth; and positive checks means natural calamities, floods, war, etc. His theory was criticized by many other experts, because Malthus considered only two factors like food supply and population growth. Other factors such as improvements in technology, industrialization, globalization etc. are not considered by him. He was right at his moment in time but development made him wrong. So another theory came into practice. Edwin Cannan is best known for his 1904 book of The Wealth of Nations. He was Professor at the London School of Economics, The relationship between population and resources outline the basis of the optimum population, theory. Edwin Cannan, has been given the credit for defining what later came to be known as, the concept of "Optimum Population theorem." while describing population theory and policy, he classified nations into three categories according to the size of their population: (1) Under-populated nations; (2) Over-populated nations; and (3) Nations with normal populations, meaning a size favorable to the greatest possible productivity. The concept of optimum population has been interpreted in several ways, "to mean the size of the population which results in the highest per capita income, the highest productivity as measured in different manners, or the highest level of other less well-defined economic indicators, such as economic welfare, level of living, real income and, in some cases, employment." This theory has been criticized on several grounds. Several writers have challenged its practical applicability by expressing doubts, whether optimum population in the sense of an optimum point can ever be determined. Some writers, considering the concept of the economic optimum as being too restrictive, they have included in it the total well-being, health, and durability of a nation, the ideal family size, and the protection of natural resources, power, defense and other spiritual, cultural and aesthetic factors.

Due to the criticisms to optimum population theorem, another theory came into practice. That is popularly called the demographic transition model. The theory is based on an interpretation of demographic history developed in 1929 by the American demographer Warren Thompson. Thompson observed changes, or transitions, in birth and death rates in industrialized societies over the previous several years. DT is the transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system.

Population profiles of LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries) typically have a wide base and a narrow top. This represents a high birth rate and high death rate. Population profiles of MEDCs (More Economically Developed Countries) typically have a roughly equal distribution of population throughout the age groups. The top obviously gets narrower as a result of deaths. Since 1980, India has experienced no further declines in the birth rate while death continues to go down. The birth rate has remained constant at 32-33 per 1000, despite of dramatic increases in the percentage of couples protected from unwanted pregnancy from 24% in 1980-81 to 41% in 1986-87. Without a national family planning program, India's birth rate certainly would have increased substantially during this period. In terms of economic conditions, there have been no improvements in the 1980s in per capita income that would push India into the 3rd stage of the demographic transition. The apprehension of the theory is that, when societies become trapped too long in this 2nd stage, economic decline and ecological deterioration occur. At present, food grain production has been able to keep speed with population increases, but such production cannot increase indefinitely without soil erosion, deforestation, and other environmental degradations. Moreover, when no more grasslands and forests are available for conversion to cropland, the number of landless households will increase. In fact, the number of landless households has already grown from 15 million in 1961 to 56 million in 2011. The implications of landlessness are agrarian conflicts, rural political unrest, low life expectancy, malnutrition, and illiteracy. To avoid the consequences of stagnation in the rate of fertility decline, the Government of India is urged to adopt an aggressive population control effort.

Problems with a youthful population (India) Much of India’s population are under 16 years old, so it has a high Dependency Ratio. This is because life expectancy is short (63 years) and India’s Birth Rate is high. India’s Dependency Ratio is 63, so every 100 economically active people support 63 dependants. This causes problems for the Indian government: The high cost of providing basic healthcare and education for so many young people. A population explosion will happen when this youthful population grown-up and have their own families. There is an increasing demand for fundamentals such as housing, food, energy etc. The burden of these extra costs will fall on the economically active population.

Population in India India’s population has crossed 1.21 billion as per Census of 2011 and is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025, it may go beyond China. With this, India became only the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark. Its population growth rate is 1.41%. India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35ys. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years. India's 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven. The ratio of girls to boys is 914 girls per 1,000 boys. In the previous census the ratio was 927 girls to 1,000 boys. Scientists who study human sex ratios and demographic trends suggest that birth sex ratio between 1.08 to 1.12 is because of natural factors, such as the age of mother at baby's birth, age of father at baby's birth, number of babies per couple, economic stress, end other factors, etc. India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area and supports over 17.5% of the world's population. Indian life revolves mostly around agriculture and allied activities in small villages, where the overwhelming majority of Indians live. Over thousands of years of its history, India has been attacked from the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis. Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 18 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken. Although 83% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 120 million Muslims—one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis.

The Population Control Measures Population explosion is the main obstacle for the stabilized growth of the Indian economy. Since this problem is getting powerful day by day, it is obvious to take appropriate measures to maintain it under control by lowering the birth rate. There are various measures to check rapid growth of population in India. Some of them can be discussed in the following ways. 1) Couple Protection Rate (CPR): CPR should be increased, which means the percentage of couples using birth control or family planning methods should go up. 2) Infant Mortality rate (IMR): IMR must be reduced further because when infants die in lesser numbers, there is an incentive to adopt small family norm by the people. 3) Industrialization of the country: The burden of population on land must be reduced. Cottage and small scale industries must be developed in villages to provide employment to the maximum number of people. This leads to increase in standard of living which acts as a check on population growth. 4) Increase in Female Literacy Rate and Education: The educated people have a better and more responsible outlook towards the size of their families. They can understand the advantages of a small family and adopt family planning methods to reduce the family size. This will help in reducing the birth rate. 5) Late Marriages: Late marriages must be encouraged. At the same time, early marriages must be strictly checked. The minimum age of marriage for boys at 21 years and for girls at 18 years should be strictly followed in real life.

6) Legal Steps: Strict laws must be made and enforced to check early marriages and polygamy among all casts equally who are living in India.

7) Family Planning: This is the most important measure to check the rapid growth of population. Family Planning means limiting the size of the family. The Family Planning Campaign should be a national movement. Education about family planning must be made common. People must be made aware of the different methods of birth control. There is a controversial argument in favor of and against population. Numerous experts strongly oppose the population explosion. They argue that, if the population continues to increase at the same rate, it will destroy the country. Lack of initiative by the govt. together with some irrational inhabitants of India, is responsible for this problem. Even People are not realizing the problem. One day the result will be in the form of- riots, fighting for food, water etc. India will be the largest slums creator. All cities will be like, fish markets with people everywhere. Traffic will move like the ants party. Everybody will shout, but nobody will listen. After 20 years, India will not be the place to survive. Government should immediately bring one child law per family if they want to save this country. Several other experts argue that, a baby is born with one mouth and two hands. Suppose every one of the people is given suitable employments as per the capability and competence, then the population will be a boon to the nation. In this connection The Population Control Measures undertaken by the government of India are: Adoption of cost effective technologies should be encouraged to provide jobs, Implementation of waste minimization techniques to support work culture. Adoption of appropriate pollution control measures may encourage jobs. Spreading awareness messages through programs for the prospective and accessible entrepreneurs on usage of wastage and pollution control to speed up entrepreneurships. By providing the better employment opportunities we can Rise in Per-capita Income. Demographic history of various advanced countries shows that there is an inverse relationship between per-capita income and a country’s birth rate. When per-capita income increases, people don’t desire more children in order increase their income. Dumont, a noted demographer has developed the “Social Capillarity Thesis” to explain this relationship between birthrate and per-capita income. Therefore, rapid economic development is very much essential to control the already high birth rate. Urbanization and Industrialization In the Indian society we have joint family system which encourages a high birth rate. Hence this joint family has to be replaced by nucleus family. A nucleus family is generally found in an urbanized and industrialized economy. Hence our efforts should be to industrialize and urbanize our economy to reduce the high birth rate. Women education and employment In India, only 33 percent of women are literate and much less are employed. The Government, therefore, should take effectual steps to spread women education and create employment opportunities for them so that they can understand the evils of population growth and control it by themselves.

Publicity

The massage of family planning should reach the people of rural areas. For this there should be widespread publicity in the news paper, radio and T.V etc. people should be convinced that no birth control device is harmful and small family is a happy family.

Benefits Population profile is also used in Ecology to determine the overall age distribution of a population; an indication of the reproductive capabilities and likelihood of the continuation of a species. A population profile is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population typically that of a country or region of the world, which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing. Population profiles are often viewed as the most effective way to graphically depict the age and sex distribution of a population, partly because of the very clear image these pyramids present. A great deal of information about the population broken down by age and sex can be read from a population pyramid, and this can discard the light on the extent of development and other aspects of the population. A population pyramid also tells how many people of each age range live in the area. There tends to be more females than males in the older age groups, due to females' longer life expectancy. A helpful analogy to facilitate understanding population is that just as a builder employs a blueprint for showing a house's structure, demographers and geographers employ population profiles as a blueprint for showing population dynamics. Population profiles can be used to observe the natural increase, birth, and death rate. The most important demographic characteristic of a population is its age-sex structure. Age-sex profiles graphically display this information to improve understanding and ease comparison.

Problems Thousands of children go hungry to death every day in different places around the world. Illegal immigration is a big problem for the various countries. A few of the consequent environmental problems: Forests everywhere are "disappearing." The global unpolluted fresh water supply is in danger. Air in most big cities is becoming increasingly unhealthy.

Poorer people, who cannot meet their basic needs through purchase, are forced to use common property resources such as forests for food and fuel, and ponds and rivers for water. Clean drinking water facility through taps is available to only 35 percent of urban households and 18 percent of rural households in India. Other residents use unsafe water sources like wells, ponds and rivers. Population pressure driven overexploitation of the surface and underground water resources by the poor has resulted into contamination and exhaustion of the water resources. Urban population is also using rivers to dispose of untreated sewage and industrial effluent. The result is that health of those dependents on untreated water resources is increasing at risk. The study reveals that rapid population growth has led to the overexploitation of natural resources. The deforestation has led to the shrinking of forest cover, which eventually affects human health. The considerable magnitude of air pollution in the country also pulls up the number of people suffering from respiratory diseases and many a times leading to deaths and serious health hazards. The situation is also similar for water pollution, as both ground water and surface water contamination leads to various water related diseases. Conclusion With the assistance of the discussion, it is concluded that the population outline is very important concept for any student of geography and economics. Population censes is a boon to analyze the advancement of a country. It can be derived through two major components like population pyramid and projections. Globalization is essentially dependent on the population accounting of a nation. Even though there are a number of serious issues to be considered while evaluate the population, it is extremely constructive to sustain the welfare activities in a welfare state. …………………………

World human population

Main article: World population

As of today's date, the world population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012. According to a separate estimate by the United Nations, Earth’s population exceeded 7 billion in October 2011, a milestone that offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities to all of humanity, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

According to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion (6,500,000,000) on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, and 6 years after world population reached 5.5 billion in 1993. The population of some countries, such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates.

Researcher, Carl Haub, calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years.

Predicted Growth and Decline

Time taken for each billion people to be added to the world's population (including future estimates). See also alt. chart

Main article: Population growth

Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. The last 50 years have seen a yet more rapid increase in the rate of population growth due to medical advances and substantial increases in agricultural productivity, particularly beginning in the 1960s, made by the Green Revolution. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the world's population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055.

In the future, world population has been expected to reach a peak of growth, from there it will decline due to economic reasons, health concerns, land exhaustion and environmental hazards. According to one report, it is very likely that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the 21st century. Further, there is some likelihood that population will actually decline before 2100. Population has already declined in the last decade or two in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The population pattern of less-developed regions of the world in recent years has been marked by gradually declining birth rates following an earlier sharp reduction in death rates. This transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates is often referred to as the demographic transition.

Control

Main article: Human population control

Human population control is the practice of artificially altering the rate of growth of a human population. Historically, human population control has been implemented by limiting the population's birth rate, usually by government mandate, and has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing levels of poverty, environmental concerns, religious reasons, and overpopulation. While population control can involve measures that improve people's lives by giving them greater control of their reproduction, some programs have exposed them to exploitation.

Worldwide, the population control movement was active throughout the 1960s and 1970s, driving many reproductive health and family planning programs. In the 1980s, tension grew between population control advocates and women's health activists who advanced women's reproductive rights as part of a human rights-based approach. Growing opposition to the narrow population control focus led to a significant change in population control policies in the early 1990s.

External links

• UNFPA, The United Nations Population Fund
• United Nations Population Division
• CICRED homepage a platform for interaction between research centres and international organizations, such as the United Nations Population Division, UNFPA, WHO and FAO.
• Current World Population
• NECSP HomePage
• Overpopulation
• Population Matters
• Population Reference Bureau (2005). Retrieved 13 February 2005.
• Population World: Population of World. Retrieved 13 February 2004.
• SIEDS, Italian Society of Economics Demography and Statistics
• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - Official Web Site
• World Population Counter, and separate regions.
• WorldPopClock.com. (French)
• Populations du monde. (French)
• OECD population data
• Understanding the World Today Reports about world and regional population trends