Population

Introduction

Begin with this short, but dense, introduction to human population growth prepared by Dr. John Kimball at Harvard University

1. How is the gap between birth and death rates related to population growth?
2. How does decreasing death rates lead to a demographic transition and lower rates of population increase even though intuition would suggest that lower death rates, and constant birth rates, will initially lead to increased rates of population growth?
3. Be sure you understand how to read population age structure graphs.   When you think you’ve got it, can you explain the phenomenon of population momentum?

One of the responsibilities of the CIA is to assess how changes in the world, not just politics, but environment, too, can affect national security.   Look over their predictions for population growth over the next decade.

1. Which resources will be in dangerously short supply by 2015?
2. In what ways might population growth lead to political instability?

The Population Reference Bank is loaded with factsheets including FAQs about population fundamentals and easy to digest data.

The U.S. Census Bureau has interactive population pyramids by country.   Select Type of Output:   Dynamic for

• Mexico
• Angola
• Sweden
• Egypt
• Italy
• Nicaragua
• Iraq

1. What is the relationship between level of development and population expansion?

When you’ve finished your reading, go to NOVA’s World in the Balance page and take the Global Trends Quiz.

Population Policy

Review two short readings on the issue of population policy. The first is entitled “What Was Cairo? The Promise and Reality of ICPD.” This is a follow up explanation of the global Population Conference held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 and what has been happing since that conference. The second reading is entitled “Thailand: A Family Planning Success Story,” an article which summarizes some of the reasons for the effectiveness of family planning in that country.

Additional cool websites.

U.S. population reflected by growth of sports teams.

Check the world population clock for NOW and for any date after 1970.

WOA, World Overpopulation Awareness, is a comprehensive website on issues of overpopulation.   Every page is packed with information.   More than any person could digest, but it’s all here.   They also have some very cool tickers with birth rates, loss of topsoil, starvation rates and so forth that bring home the message.

What you can do

Population Connection, formerly Zero Population Growth, has an excellent set of activities to combat overpopulation including Campus Programs, e-mail campaigns, legislative agendas and so forth.   Scroll toward the bottom of their home page to find their links.

Prepared by Eric Pallant and Terry Bensel 9/05.