As our world has entered into the 21st century, the issue of global birth rates are prevalent in both developed and developing nations. According to the demographic transition model, as a nation becomes more industrialized and economically advanced, its birth rate will decline due to the rising costs of living standards and urban living space that discourages making a large family. In one way, the low birth rate could be perceived as a good omen since it shows how advanced and developed the nation has become. The problem rises when couples start to not reproduce enough to replace the previous generation, providing countries with a lack of workforce to sustain their economic legacies. I personally believe we should be concerned about this issue, but should not fear the worst.
Despite the constant decline of babies born in the developed nations, the overall population of the world continues to grow. By early 2014, our world reached the magic number of seven billion. The reason being because people in developing countries continue to have lots of children. Many of these nations still have a strong social norm preferring boys over girls which forces women to give birth as many times as possible to secure that standard.
Additionally, developing countries have large numbers of people from previous generations who predominantly worked in agriculture, which required a large population, therefore making it harder for them to reduce the population in a short amount of time.
For the continuing growth of populations in developing nations, many of us in developed nations worry how this trend may result in the mass consumption of resources. Then again, developed nations have declining birth rates that cause equally difficult troubles for their future work force.
So, it would seem that this world seems paradoxical to some extent for having such a gap in birth rates. However, both sides are ultimately aiming for the same goal-—to balance the population dilemma.
Many developed and developing countries are trying to solve their vacancy and abundance. For example, South Korea promoted a national campaign that encouraged families to work less to have more private time. Also, multiple European nations, especially in Scandinavia, developed cheaper state-run care centers.
The developing nations with higher birth rates are following a similar pattern to lower their overwhelming populations as well, by having more people move to the urban areas with a higher cost of living. This discourages expansion of families and promotes governments offering more family planning services, birth control methods and education for women to work outside of their homes in order to lessen the economic pressure of having more children for potential economic assets.
The developing nations are progressing at a steady pace in order to reach their goals. For example, Kenya’s birth rate, starting in 2005 with an average 40 children per 1000 people decline, to 33 children per 1000 people by 2012, according to Index Mundi. Many developing countries like Kenya are trying hard to reduce population sizes through strong economic incentives, because under the rule of the demographic transition lower birth rates encourage further economic prosperity. Additionally, more organized offers by governments in providing family planning services, birth control methods and education for women and girls help in lowering birth rates.
Many developed nations use the power of immigration, other than specifically designed policies, to occupy their workforce vacuum. For example, Japan recently loosened its very strict immigration laws slightly to allow easier immigration to help fill an emptying workforce. This is an incredibly surprising move given Japan’s history of unfavorable policies toward immigrants. Many countries are willing to move away from the traditions and history in order to reach a balance. This shows great dedication to solve this issue and serves as an optimistic and hopeful omen. Despite there being concerns over illegal immigration and other crimes, immigration still helps many developed nations including the U.S., maintain population numbers.
People should not be worrying too much about overconsumption and overpopulation issues. Many developing countries are going through recognizably quick industrializations that discourage population growth and thus overconsumption since the costs of goods rise correspondingly with this economic progress. Also, as the countries grow economically, there is a trend based on the Kuznets curve that people will be given enough education or public awareness to the environmental problems from overconsumption and would consequentially consume less over time.
The world may appear worse than the past regarding overconsumption and decline in population, but as long as we work for the same goal of balance, we may not face the worst possible future.
Is the world’s growing population something that we should be concerned with or do you belive that we will be able to solve the problem as a society? Will we be able to solve this issue of overconsumption and finally start to slow the effects of global warming and climate change? How would you go about trying to solve these complex questions? Tell us how you feel and please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
