Lesson 10 Global Demography

GLOBAL
DEMOGRAPHY
Global Demography
■ Having or not having children is mainly driven by economics.

– Will the child be an economic asset of a burden to the family?
– Rural communities often welcome an extra hand to help in crop
cultivation, etc.
■ View multiple children and large kinship network as critical
investments.
– The poorer districts of urban centers also tend to have families
with more children.
– Urbanized, educated and professional families with 2 incomes,
however, desire just 1 or 2 progenies.
Global Demography
■ Urban areas contained 85% of the world rural population in 1975 and
projected to contain 90% by the end of the 20th century (UN, 1980).
■ Global agricultural population has declined in 2011 (37% of the total
world population) compared to the statistics in 1980 in which rural
and urban population percentages were more or less the same.
■ The agricultural population shrunk as a share of total population
between 1980 to 2011, it grew numerically from 2.2 billion to 2.6
billion people during this period.
■ Urban population have grown due to migration.
■ International migrates also plays a part.
Global Demography
■ The “Perils” of Overpopulation

– Development planners see urbanization and industrialization as
indicators of a developing society, but disagree on the role of
population growth or decline in modernization.
– Population growth will inevitably exhaust world food supply by the
middle of the 19th century (Thomas Malthus, 1798).
– Over population in the 1970s and the 1980s will bring about
global environmental disasters that would in turn, lead to food
shortage and mass starvation (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1960).
Global Demography
■ The “Perils” of Overpopulation

– By limiting the population, vital resources could be used for
economic progress and not be “diverted” and “washed” to feeding
more mouths.
– Contraception and sterilization are practical solutions to global
economic, social, and political problems (Foreign Affairs, 1958).
– Advocates of population control contend for universal access to
reproductive technologies (such as condoms, pill, abortion and
vasectomy). And more importantly, giving women the right to
choose whether to have children or not.
– Politics determine these “birth control” programs.
Global Demography
■ It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!

– The use of population control to prevent economic crisis has its
critics.
■ Betsy Hartmann disagrees with the advocates of neo-Malthusian
theory; governments are using population control as a “substitute
for social justice and much needed reforms.”
■ Population growth “aided economic development by spurring
technological and institutional innovation and increasing the supply
of human ingenuity.”
■ “Megacities” where income disparities along with “transportation,
housing, air pollution and waste management problems take place
are also “centers of economic growth and activity.”
Global Demography
■ It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!

– The reproductive capacities of the baby-boom generation are
especially high in regions like Est Asia.
■ As infant mortality fell from 181 to 34 per 1,000 births (between
1950 and 2000), fertility fell from 6 to 2 children per woman.
■ The lag between falls in mortality and fertility created a baby-boom
generation: between 1965 and 1990, the working-age population
grew nearly 4x faster than the dependent population.
■ Population growth spurred “technological and institutional innovation”
and increased “the supply of human ingenuity.”
Global Demography
■ Women and Reproductive Rights

– Women is often the subject of these population measures.
– Population control + economic development = women in control =
pursue vocations.
– This correlation between fertility, family and fortune has
motivated countries with growing economies to introduce or
strengthen their reproductive health laws, including abortion.
■ Ex: North America and Europe with 73% of governments allowing abortion
upon a mother’s request.
– The more educated the woman is, the better are her prospects of
improving her economic position.
Global Demography

– Most countries implement reproductive health law because they
worry about the health of the mother.
■ Ex: Bolivia’s total fertility rate (TFR):
– 1960 : 6.7 children
– 1985 : 5.13
– 2008 : 3.46
– The proportion of countries allowing abortion to preserve the
physical health of a woman increased from 63% to 67% and
those to preserve the mental health of a woman increased from
52% to 64% (United Nations, 2014).
Global Demography

– Opponents:
■ False front of abortion
■ Endangers the life of the mother
■ Must be banned
■ Sin that dishonors the name of God
– Ex: Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Russia imposed
restrictive reproductive health programs including access of
contraceptives difficult.
– Muslim countries do not condone abortion and limit wives to
domestic chores and delivering babies.
– Senegal only allows abortion if the other’s life is threatened.
Global Demography

– Philippines
■ Catholic majority; has a reproductive health law
– A country being industrialized and developed, however, does not
automatically assure pro-women reproductive regulations.
■ Ex: US
– women’s movement (1960s) = passage and judicial
endorsement of a pro-choice law
– but conservatives imposed a restriction on women’s access to
abortion.
Global Demography
■ The Feminist Perspective

– Feminists are against any form of population control because…
■ they are compulsory by nature, resorting to a carrot-and-stick
approach that actually does not empower women.
■ Government assumptions that poverty and environmental
degradation are caused by overpopulation are wrong.
– Other causes of poverty and environmental degradation:
■ Unequal distribution of wealth
■ the lack of public safety nets (health care, education and gender
equality programs)
– UN International Conference on Population and Development
(1994) suggests recognition of this issue.
Global Demography
■ Population Growth and Food Security

– Global population:
■ Today - 7.4 billion
■ 2005 - 9.5 billion (Estimated)
■ 2100 - 11.2 billion (Estimated)
– Median age - 30.1
■ Male - 29.4
■ Female - 30.9
■ Feeding this population will be an immense challenge.
Global Demography

– Food production must increase by 70%; annual cereal production
must rise to 3 billion tons (from 2.1); and yearly meat production
must go up to 200 M tons to reach 470 M (Food and Agriculture
Organization, n.d.).
– Problem:
■ the global rate of growth of cereals declined (3.2% in 1960 to 1.5%
in 2000).
– FAO recommends that countries increase investments in
agriculture, craft long term policies aimed at fighting poverty, and
invest in research and development.
Global Demography

– UN also suggests that countries develop a comprehensive social
service program that includes:
■ Food assistance
■ Consistent delivery of health services
■ Education
– If domestic production is not enough, it becomes essential for
nations to import.
– Nation-states shall need the political will to push through these
sweeping changes in population growth and food security.
Global Demography
■ Conclusion
– Demography is a complex discipline that requires the integration
of various social scientific data.
– Demographic changes and policies have impacts on environment,
politics, resources, and others.
– Demography accounts for the growth and decline of the human
species
– Thus, no interdisciplinary account of globalization is complete
without accounting of people.

Lesson 10 Global Demography

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GLOBAL

■ Having or not having children is mainly driven by economics.

■ The “Perils” of Overpopulation

■ The “Perils” of Overpopulation

■ It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!

■ It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!

■ Women and Reproductive Rights

■ Women and Reproductive Rights

■ Women and Reproductive Rights

■ Women and Reproductive Rights

■ The Feminist Perspective

■ Population Growth and Food Security

■ Population Growth and Food Security

■ Population Growth and Food Security

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