INTRODUCTION Population growth and Economic development go hand in hand. Their relationship can either be inverse or direct. In the sense that in some instances a masive increase in population leads to high economic development, on the other hand an increase in population can hinder economic development. Therefore from this analysis we cannot actually say population growth is a hindrance to economic development. This essay focuses on the negative and positive effects of population growth on economic development. NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF POPULATION GROWTH ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Government resources are limited, so population growth is seen as using up those limited resources on unproductive investment such as providing for the dependent population (the young (0-14) and the old (65and above) ). These government resources could have been used for capital goods and improving other sectors which might contribute to growth of the economy other than spending them on consumption goods. To support this point Cincotta and Engelman (1997) mention that the growth of GDP can be constrained by high dependency ratios, which result when rapid population growth produces large proportions of children and youth relative to the labour force. Population growth competes with capital formation and as such more is spent on the dependent ratio at …show more content…
Economic growth may be achieved when economies of scale is realized; this is usually attained through specialization. Specialization enables human capital to be concentrated on the task in which people have developed special skills. Hence through such efficiency time and money could be saved while production levels increase. With specialisation and economies of scale, production is bound to be on the rise. Cassen et al. (1994) also agrees with Easterlin (1975) on the point that population growth may afford economies of scale and