GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHY

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. discuss the relationship between population a d economic welfare
b. identify the effects of aging and overpopulation
c. differentiate between contrasting positions over reproductive health

Slide 3:

Demography
demo – meaning “the people”
graphy – “measurement”

Demography is the statistical study of human populations. Demography examines the size,
structure, and movements of populations over space and time.

Slide 4

When couples are asked why they have children, their answers are almost always about their
feelings.

For most, having a child is the symbol of a successful union. It also ensures that the family will
have a successor generation that will continue its name.

However, there are few who worry how much strain a child can bring to the household as
he/she “competes” for the parents’ attention and how much energy the family needs to shower
its love to an additional member.

Will the child be an economic asset or burden to the family?

Slide 5

● Rural communities often welcome an extra hand to help in crop cultivation, particularly
during the planting and harvesting seasons.
● The poorer districts of urban centers also tend to have families with more children
because the success of their “small family business” depends on how many of their
members can be hawking their wares on the streets.
● Urbanized, educated, and professional families with two incomes, however, desire just
one or two progenies.

Slide 6

● These families also have their sights on long-term savings plan. They set aside
significant parts of their incomes for their retirement, health care, and the future
education of their child/children.
● Rural families view multiple children and large kinship networks as critical investments.
● Urban families, however, may not have the same kinship network anymore because
couples live on their own, or because they move out of the farmland. It is usually the
basic family unit that is left to deal with life’s challenges on its own.
Slide 7

● These differing versions of family life determine the economic and social policies that
countries craft regarding their respective populations.
● Countries in the “less developed regions of the world” that rely on agriculture tend to
maintain high levels of population growth.
● Urban populations have grown, but not necessarily because families are having more
children. It is rather the combination of the natural outcome of significant migration to
the cities by people seeking work in the “more modern” sectors of society.
● International migration also plays a part. Today, 191 million people live in countries other
than their own, and the United Nations projects that over 2.2 million will move from the
developing world to the First World countries.

Slide 8

The “Perils” of Overpopulation

Slide 9

● Development planners see urbanization and industrialization as indicators of a

developing society, but disagree on the role of population growth or decline in
modernization.
● This lengthy discussion brings back ideas of British scholar Thomas Malthus, who
warned in his 1798 “An Essay on the Principle of Population” that population growth
will inevitably exhaust world food supply by the middle of the 19th century.
● It was revived in the late 1960s when American biologist Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife,
Anne, wrote “The Population Bomb”, which argued that overpopulation in the 1970s and
1980s will bring about global environmental disasters that would lead to food
shortage and mass starvation.

Slide 10

● Their recommendations ranged from the bizarre (chemical castration) to the policy-
oriented (taxing an additional child and luxury taxes in child-related products) to
monetary incentives (paying off men who would agree to be sterilized after two
children) to institution-building (a powerful Department of Population and
Environment).
● By limiting the population, vital resources could be used for economic progress and
not be “diverted” and “wasted” to feeding more mouths.
● This argument became the basis for government “population control” programs
worldwide.

Slide 11

● In the mid-20th century, the Philippines, China, and India sought to lower birth rate on
the belief that the expansion of family members would lead to a crisis in resources,
which in return may result in widespread poverty, mass hunger, and political
instability.
● As early as 1958, the American policy journal, Foreign Affairs, had already advocated
“contraception and sterilization” as the practical solutions to global economic, social,
and political problems.
 ● Advocates of population control contend for universal access to reproductive
technologies (such as condoms, pills, abortion, and vasectomy) and more importantly,
giving women the right to choose whether to have children or not.

Slide 12

● Politics determine these “birth control” programs. Developed countries justify their
support for population control in developing countries by depicting the latter as
conservative societies.
● Examples:
○ Population experts blamed the “irresponsible fecundity” of Egyptians for that
nation’s run-on population growth
○ The Iranian peasant’s “natural” libidinal tendencies for the same rise in
population
○ Muslims as hypersexual and hyper-fecund and hence a drain on resources
○ Forced sterilization of 20 million “violators” of the Chinese government’s One-
Child Policy
○ Vietnam and Mexico also conducted coercive mass sterilization

Slide 13 - Stats to so idk if isasama ko

Slide 14
It’s the Economy, not the Babies!

Slide 15

The use of population control to prevent economic crisis has its critics.

● Betsy Hartmann disagrees with the advocates of neo-Malthusian theory and accused
governments of using population control as a “substitute for social justice and much
needed reforms – such as land distribution, employment creation, provision of mass
education and health care.”
● Neo-Malthusianism refers to the belief that population control through the use of
contraception is essential for the survival of the earth’s human population.
● Others pointed out that the population did grow fast in many countries in the 1960s, and
this growth “aided economic development by spurring technological and
institutional innovation and increasing the supply of human ingenuity.”

Slide 16

● Advances in agricultural production have shown that the Malthusian nightmare can be
prevented.
● The “Green Revolution” created high-yielding varieties of rice and other cereals,
and along with the development of new methods of cultivation increased yields
globally, but more particularly in the developing world.
● Between 1950 and 1984, global grain production increased by over 250 percent,
allowing agriculture to keep pace with population growth, thereby keeping global famine
under control.
 ● Scholars and policymakers agree with the neo-Malthusians but suggest that if
governments pursue population control programs, they must include “more inclusive
growth” and “greener economic growth.”

Slide 17
Women and Reproductive Rights

Slide 18

● Women are often subject of these population measures. Reproductive rights supporters
argue that if population control and economic development were to reach their goals,
women must have control over whether they will have children or not and when they
will have their progenies – they will be able to pursue their vocations.
● This correlation between family, fertility, and fortune has motivated countries with
growing economies to introduce or strengthen their reproductive health laws,
including abortion.

Slide 19

● High-income First World nations and fast-developing countries were able to sustain
growth in part because women were given the power of choice and easy access to
reproductive technologies.
● In North America and Europe, 73% of governments allow abortion upon a mother’s
request. Moreover, the more educated a woman is, the better are her prospects of
improving her economic position.
● Most countries implement reproductive health laws because they worry about the health
of the mother. In 1960, Bolivia’s average total fertility (TFR) was 6.7 children. In 1978,
the Bolivian government put into effect a family planning program that included the
legalization of abortion. In 1985, the TFR went down to 5.13 and further declined to
3.46 in 2008.

Slide 20

● A similar pattern occurred in Ghana after the government expanded reproductive health
laws out of the same concern as that of the Bolivian government. As a result, “fertility
declined steeply… and continued to decline after 1994.”
● In 2014, the United Nations noted that the proportion of countries allowing abortion to
preserve the physical health of a woman increased from 63% to 67%, and those to
preserve the mental health of a woman increased from 52% to 64%.

Slide 21

● Opponents regarded reproductive rights as nothing but a false front for abortion. They
contend that this method of preventing conception endangers the life of the mother and
must be banned.
● The religious wing of the anti-reproductive right flank goes further and describes abortion
as a debauchery that sullies the name of God; it will send the mother to hell and
prevents the baby to become human.

Slide 22
 ● Unfailing pressure by Christian groups compelled the governments of Poland, Croatia,
Hungary, Yugoslavia, and even Russia to impose restrictive reproductive health
programs, including making access to condoms and other technologies.
● Muslim countries do not condone abortion and limit wives to domestic chores.
● Senegal only allows abortion when the mother’s life is threatened.
● The Philippines, with a Catholic majority, now has a reproductive health law but
conservative politicians have enfeebled it through budget cuts.

Slide 23

Population Growth and Food Security

Slide 24

Today’s global population has reached 7.9 billion, and it is estimated to increase to 9.5 billion
in 2050, then 11.2 billion by 2100.

● 95% of this population growth will happen in the developing countries, with
demographers predicting that by the middle of this century, several countries will have
tripled their population.
● The opposite is happening in the developed world where populations remain steady in
general, but declining in some of the most advanced countries (Japan and Singapore).
● Demographers predict that the world population will stabilize by 2050 to 9 billion,
although they warn that feeding this population will be an immense challenge.

Slide 25 - Stats ulit

Slide 26

● The decline in fertility and the existence of a young productive population, however, may
not be enough to offset this concern over food security.
● The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that in order for countries to
mitigate the impact of population growth, food production must increase by 70%;
annual cereal production must rise to 3 billion tons from the current 2.1 billion; and
yearly meat production must go up to 200 million tons to reach 470 million.
● The FAO recommends that countries should increase their investments in agriculture,
craft long-term policies aimed at fighting poverty, and invest in research and
development.

Slide 27

● The UN body also suggests that countries develop a comprehensive social service
program that includes food assistance, consistent delivery of health services, and
education especially for the poor.
● The FAO enjoins governments to keep their markets open, and to eventually “move
towards a global trading system that is fair and competitive, and that contributes to a
dependable market for food.”
 ● The aforementioned are worthy recommendations but nation-states shall need the
political will to push through these sweeping changes in population growth and food
security.

Slide 28 - thank u