Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a rapidly growing population.

According to the latest survey, population growth has become an alarming social challenge. The rapidly swelling population is the primary cause of lack of resources, placing heavy pressure on employment, education, housing, medical care and transportation. However, it cannot be denied that there are both advantages and disadvantages of having a rapidly growing population.

A well – documented disadvantage of over-population is food shortage. At the present rate of population growth, the existing farm land will become inadequate to supply food and water. Meanwhile, housing shortage is another direct consequence of an ever – rising population. In fact, housing shortage has become a serious challenge in many parts of the world. Populated countries like China or India are faced with severe housing shortage. Last but not the least, if the population were too large, it would lead to the scarcity of educational resources and the same is true for the lack of hospital , doctors and nurses, just to name a few.

However, the advantages of a rising population should not be denied. Generally speaking, the positive aspects can be listed as follows. To start with, population growth increases economic opportunities.  A growing population can generate growing market demand. Companies can produce goods in larger numbers and with lower cost, serving a larger number of low-income customers. In addition, agricultural societies often value large families. Rural families have traditionally looked upon increased membership as a benefit, not a liability. In cultures where children are expected to contribute to the resources of a family, more children mean more wealth. Further, in many cultures, grown up children are also counted on against old age. In that sense, larger families make that provision more secure.

From the above discussion, we can see that despite the economic benefits, a rapidly rising population is really a concern for all of us. To mitigate the adverse consequences, the government is recommended to improve the social security and welfare systems while issue laws to limit family size.  It is a common wish that the available resources could sustain many generations to come.