Chapters 8–13 analyze factors that influence economic growth. The next three chapters examine the role of the human population in economic growth. This chapter examines how population growth affects economic development and how fertility affects labor force participation and development. Chapter 9 looks at how population growth affects labor force growth and unemployment, and Chapter 10 at what factors affect labor skills – a major component of population quality.

Between 1980 and 2005, the world's population grew at 1.6 percent per year, from 4.4 billion to 6.5 billion. During the same period, LDC population grew at 2.0 percent per year, from 3.2 billion to 5.3 billion. This chapter explains this phenomenal growth rate and looks at its implications.

Scope of the Chapter

After a brief historical sketch, we consider population growth in DCs and LDCs and by world regions. Next, we explain the rapid but decelerating growth in LDCs by looking at trends in death and birth rates during a period of demographic (population) transition. With this background, we assess the effect of population growth on economic development and review the work of the classical economist Thomas Robert Malthus, who argues that population growth outstrips economic growth. In this connection, we discuss the present and future balance between food and population. Population growth also affects urbanization, labor force growth, and the number of dependents workers must support; we look at all of these elements, too.