Population and Development vs Quality of Life: A Sociological Appraisal

Abstract

The two variables of population and development affect each other in an indirect manner in which when population increase happens, development is reduced. The two effectively impact quality of life. It is strongly recommended to control population in order to achieve development. Sociologists are widely responsible to create the balance of population and development. As resources are limited in each country, an organized and planned population is needed towards any development. The phenomenon development being multi-lateral, needs an appropriate population size. It is worth mentioning that population naturally grows, but resources for development do not. Overall, Asia, Africa, and Latin America had very high population growth rate of 2.1% between 1955 and 1975. Fortunately, increase of literacy and education has caused population growth rates to decline in the past two decades in many parts of the developing countries. The only part of the developing world with high population growth rate is Africa in which the population will increase to over 4.2 billion by the year 2100; threatening other parts of the world. Such a situation will widely endanger quality of life.