Assignment on Population Growth

Running head: POPULATION GROWTH 1
Population Growth
Name
Institutional Affiliation

POPULATION GROWTH 2
Population growth
At the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was at 1.6 billion and as of
now, the population is at over 7 billion people. It shows that the population is growing at a rapid
rate. With the phenomenal rate at which the population is growing, it has renewed an ongoing
debate on the number of people that can be supported by the earth (5). It is the view of some
people that the most vital problem facing human being is overpopulation while others point out
that humans have to employ ingenuity to solve their issues. According to the most recent revision
to the projection of worldwide human population in 2100, the population will be at 11 billion and
the life expectancy will rise to 83 years from 70 years from 2010 to 2015 (6). This estimation
increases the urgency for human beings to formulate sustainable solutions that will mitigate the
negative effects of the high population rate.
Most people have the misplaced belief that overpopulation is the single root cause of
almost all the world’s issues such as economic problems related to neoliberalism. These
individuals hold the viewpoint that overpopulation in free markets increases the income gap.
However, this is not the case, if population growth is handled in the right manner it can turn into
a positive for the world. In the past, it was feared that population growth would lead to increased
poverty rates but this is not the case. The growth did not increase the rates but it remained the
same or reduced with 10% of the world population being poor(2). With increase populations, it
means that there will be more people to offer their ingenuity on how to increase resources for
human use. Also, when there is pressure on food supply and other resources people will have to
come up with solutions for these shortages it is well known that necessity is the mother of all
inventions. Thus, this means that population growth positively affects the economic growth and