Table of Contents

Introduction

Fertility

Mortality

Migration

Population Size and Growth

Population Composition

Population Distribution

Population Growth Issues

Concern About Population

Conclusion

Suggested Resources

References

Related Publications

Population: A Lively Introduction

Concern About Population

The reader no doubt has noticed that many social problems emanate from the population processes of fertility, mortality, and migration. These include the scarcity and waste of social resources caused by baby booms and busts; premature death, especially in certain demographic subgroups; the heavy concentration of population in some urban areas and depopulation in rural areas; social disturbances caused by changes in a population's racial and ethnic composition; and the threat of declining quality of life for present and future generations because of world population growth. The damage such problems produce is indisputable.

Americans are usually somewhat interested in population problems. They have very general opinions on such issues as the desirability of population growth, the appropriate amount of immigration, and the "ideal" racial and ethnic composition of the population. Intense concern about such issues flares up occasionally. For example, in recent years concern has risen sharply over the flow of legal and illegal immigrants into the United States. Polls have indicated that Americans strongly favor imposing limitations on immigration and completely terminating illegal movements into the country.⁸³ California voters' passage in 1994 of Proposition 187 is one illustration of the public's concern. This measure sought to end education and nonemergency health care for illegal immigrants. Another is the 1995 recommendation by a bipartisan congressional panel that the United States gradually reduce the number of immigrants to 550,000 annually. And, ending illegal immigration was one of the primary purposes of immigration reform legislation passed in 1996.⁸⁴ This heightened concern has been caused in part by the recession and slow economic recovery of the early 1990s, which raised fears of increased job competition, and by the media attention on immigration issues.

Yet, most Americans do not view population issues as among our most serious social problems. Population problems lack the dramatic event—the startling calamity or outrageous incident—that galvanizes attention and action. Rather, they develop inconspicuously through the processes of birth, death, and migration.

Experts often disagree about the severity of population problems. Debate about population has been going on at least since Aristotle, who cautioned that populations could outstrip their subsistence base, leading to poverty and social discord.⁸⁵ Thomas Malthus reached a similar conclusion in the late 18th century. He argued that the natural consequences of population growth are poverty and misery because the population will eventually exceed the food supply.

In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels rejected this Malthusian view. They blamed poverty not on the poor or on overpopulation, but on the evils of social organization in capitalist societies. Overpopulation in their view was a natural feature of capitalism, and it would not exist in socialist societies because the latter would provide enough resources for each person. When resources were scarce, the hard times would provide the motivation to reduce family size.

Today, the debate over overpopulation continues. Media articles on world population growth vacillate from doomsday hysteria to complacent unconcern, depending on which experts are used as a source.

The recent upswing in concern about environmental problems has brought more attention to the consequences of world population growth. Commitment to the environment is a deeply and widely held value among Americans, according to Gallup research. This commitment increasingly is being extended to population issues.⁸⁶

Expectations also play a role in determining the level of public concern about population problems. For example, when concern about the population explosion or depopulation flares up, people tend to believe that the rate of growth—whether positive or negative—will continue until people are standing on each other's shoulders or until no one is left.⁸⁷ Such expectations, however, underestimate a society's ability to solve problems through social change.