Human population
Over the past five decades of the twentieth century, the world human population has been on a tremendous rise at an alarming rate a factor which accrued attention from various stakeholders. Human population can be termed as the number of individuals who are found within a given specific geographic area which harbors a given amount of resources. A number of factors led to these manifested increased rates of human population in the last decades of the twentieth century. They include improved technology which led to efficient utilization of scarce resources as well as improved farming techniques. According to research studies which were carried out in the United States of America, they showed that availability of resources within a given area contributes largely on the growth of human population (Kirk, 1996).
Nevertheless, due to fluctuations in the human birth rates as well as death rates, demographers have acknowledged that the human population is on slowed phase a factor which needs clarity and proof. The complexity of measuring the human population on the basis of birth and death rates within a given geographic region is usually a cumbersome process. This is based on the fact that there is a persistence fluctuation of these rates especially when natural elements such as calamities and epidemic diseases dominate. To eliminate the issue of complexity due to reliance on these rates, a constant check on age structure, economic resources such as infrastructural facilities especially the family planning facilities can be used to evaluate the demographic transition within a given society (Davis, 1945).
According to statistical reports from the United States of America, they have shown that age structure can be effectively utilized to identify as well as to predict the future human population. For instance, a population dominated by a large percent of young energetic people is more likely to have an exponential growth in the near future as compare to one having older people. Through check of such factors, there is no need to rely on birth and death rates in evaluating the human population (Coale, Barbara & Erna, 1979).
References
Coale, A.J., Barbara, A. A & Erna H. (1979). Human Fertility in Russia since the Nineteenth
Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Davis, K. (1945). "The World Demographic Transition." Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 1945 237: 1-11.
Kirk, D. (1996). "The Demographic Transition". Population Studies 50 (3): 361–387.
