Effects of overpopulation The planet has a limited capacity to generate raw materials and each year the natural resources deficit – the consumption of resources at a faster rate than the planet is able to generate them – is reached earlier.
Larger populations require more food, water, and energy, and consequently tax the earth's ability to replace used resources. Overpopulation depletes wildlife to dangerously low levels. Overfishing has ruined many formerly fertile fishing grounds.
Earth's capacity
Many scientists think Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 billion to 10 billion people. [ How Do You Count 7 Billion People?] One such scientist, the eminent Harvard University sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, bases his estimate on calculations of the Earth's available resources.
A major impact of overpopulation is ecological damage. As the world's population has grown exponentially, the Earth has suffered. The expanded population has adversely affected numerous ecosystems around the globe.
The 5 effects of rapid population growth are increased economic growth of a country, growing demand for jobs, lack of housing and schools, lack of infrastructure leading to poor living, and increase in pollution and waste.
Rapid growth has led to uncontrolled urbanization, which has produced overcrowding, destitution, crime, pollution, and political turmoil. Rapid growth has outstripped increases in food production, and population pressure has led to the overuse of arable land and its destruction.
Tech entrepreneur and multi-billionaire Elon Musk claims that underpopulation rather than overpopulation is the greatest threat that faces humanity, despite the current destruction of nature and the millions of people living in extreme poverty.
Together, China and India are home to more than one third of the world's population. For many decades, the size and growth of the Chinese and Indian populations have been a focus of global concerns about the rapid growth of the human population and its implications for sustainable development (United Nations, 2022c).
Moreover, he suggests that human numbers have already passed the long-term capacity of the Earth to sustain us and that an optimum world population lies perhaps in the range of 2 to 3 billion.
The world's current (overall as well as natural) growth rate is about 1.14%, representing a doubling time of 61 years. We can expect the world's population of 6.5 billion to become 13 billion by 2067 if current growth continues.
India will remain the world's most populous country in 2050, having already reached that status this year. And while China will retain its position at second, its population will decline from 1.44 billion in 2030 to 1.32 billion in 2050 — representing an enduring legacy of its draconian one-child policy.
No demographic data exist for more than 99% of the span of human existence. Still, with some assumptions about population size throughout human history, we can get a rough idea of this number: About 117 billion members of our species have ever been born on Earth.
In response, population activists argue that overpopulation is a problem in both rich and poor countries, and arguably a worse problem in rich countries, where residents' higher per capita consumption ratchets up the impacts of their excessive numbers.
Human overpopulation has been dominating planetary physical, chemical, and biological conditions and limits, with an annual absorption of 42% of the Earth's terrestrial net primary productivity, 30% of its marine net primary productivity, 50% of its fresh water, 40% of its land devoted to human food production, up from ...
China is forecast to lose almost half of its people by 2100, plunging from more than 1.4 billion to 771 million inhabitants. Russia, Germany, South Korea and Spain are all set to join this downward movement, with their populations beginning to decline by 2030.
Researchers expect the US to face underpopulation, blaming a falling birth rate and economic crises. Every 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate reduces births by 1 percent, according to Wellesley College economics professor Phil Levine.
Russia may be different. Its population is falling unusually fast and may drop to 130m by mid-century. The decline is associated with increased misery: the life expectancy at birth of Russian males plummeted from 68.8 in 2019 to 64.2 in 2021, partly because of covid, partly from alcohol-related disease.
According to a recent research, the world's population could reach 8.5 billion by 2050 before declining to 7 billion by 2100. By 2050, population growth might come to a halt.
Population decline is only a threat to an economy based on growth. Shifting to a model based on degrowth and equity alongside lower fertility rates will help fight climate change and increase wealth and well-being.
The Effects of Overpopulation
More people means an increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and more. And all that consumption contributes to ecological degradation, increased conflicts, and a higher risk of large-scale disasters like pandemics.
It is a sudden increase in number of individuals in a specific area at a given time. Population explosion is a cause of serious concern for all of us . Its impact is already showing in many areas caused by a sudden increase in population. The world population is growing at the rate of 2% per year.
When demographers attempt to forecast changes in the size of a population, they typically focus on four main factors: fertility rates, mortality rates (life expectancy), the initial age profile of the population (whether it is relatively old or relatively young to begin with) and migration.