Managing Rapid Population Growth

Question 1

Name 4 social impacts of rapid population growth.

Answer 1

1. Services like healthcare and education can’t cope with rapid population increase, so not everyone can have access to them
2. Children have to work to support their familes so miss out on education
3. There aren’t enough houses for everyone so some poeple have to live in makeshift houses in overcrowded settlements. This can lead to health problems
4. There are food shortages if the country can’t grow or import enough food for everybody

Question 2

Name 2 economic impacts of rapid population growth.

Answer 2

1. There aren’t enough jobs for the number of people, so unemployment increases
2. There’s increased poverty because more people are born into already poor familes.

Question 3

Name 3 political impacts of rapid poopulation growth.

Answer 3

1. Most of the population are young people so the government focus on policies that are important to them eg education
2. There are fewer older people so the government doesn’t have to focus on policies important to them eg pensions
3. The government has to make policies to control population growth, so the social and economic impacts don’t get any worse.

Question 4

What are the 2 different strategies to control rapid population growth?

Answer 4

Birth control programmes and immigration laws.

Question 5

Governments need to make sure that their strategies to control rapid population growth are sustainable. What does sustainable mean?

Answer 5

Meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations

Question 6

What exactly do birth control programmes entail? How is it sustainable?

Answer 6

• Aim to reduce the birth rate
• Some governments place laws on how many children a couple can have (eg the one-child policy in China)
• Other governments help couples plan (and limit) the amount of children they have by offering free contraception and sex education (eg in Kerala)
• These help towards sustainable development because it means the population won’t get bigger. There won’t be as many people using resources, so they’ll be available to future generations

Question 7

What do immigration laws involve? How is it sustainable?

Answer 7

• Aim to control immigration
• Governments can limit the number of people that they let in
• They can also be selective of who they allow into the country eg letting in fewer people of child-bearing age means fewer immigrants will have children
• This helps towards sustainable development because it slows down the population growth rate