Question

Population Growth: What are the different ways in which population growth can affect economic growth and our standard of living?

Answer 1

The growth rate of the population can affect the economy positively as well as negatively.

Positives of Population growth:

• High population growth raises the supply of labor and now cheap availability of labor would drive up the growth rate of the economy.
• High population growth accompanied by the rise in the investment in human skill development, would indeed lead to the rise in GDP growth.
• The developed countries such as the USA have been successful in utilizing the population or human skills to drive up the growth rate and living standards.

Negatives of population growth:

• Malthus foresees the high population growth as detrimental to the living standard of people. thus, population growth should not be more than the availability of resources.
• High growth of population puts the pressure on the limited resources, therefore living standard and economic growth are adversely affected.

The growth rate of population could supply the right amount of human resources but the growth rate of population should not be unbridled. There must be a slow growth so that all human resources can be used in most efficient manner.