Impacts of rapid population growth

The impacts of rapid population growth

Social impacts

• Services like healthcare and education can't cope, so not everyone has access to them.
• Children have to work to support their large families, so they miss out on education.
• There aren't enough houses, so people are forced to live inside makeshift houses inside overcrowded settlements. This can lead to health issues as the makeshift houses aren't always connected to sewers or clean water supplies.
• If the country can't grow or import food, there will be many widespread food shortages.

Economic impacts

• There aren't enough jobs to go around - so unemployment increases.
• There's increased poverty because people are born into families which are already poor.

Political impacts

• Most of the population are young, so the government focuses on policies important to young people, such as education.
• There are less old people, so the government doesn't focus on policies important to older people as much - such as pensions.
• The government has to make policies to bring population growth under control.