Some Effects of Rapid Population Growth

When a population grows rapidly, it can put great stress on an area such as a community or a country. When sudden extreme population growth occurs, food will become a prized possession, more people will die due to disease and war, and the economy will be affected.

As a population grows, all the additional people will need food immediately to survive. There will not be time to develop new sources of food over many years. Instead, more and more people will need food more and more and the food will become more and more scarce. Increased death rates will occur when there are not enough supplies to feed, house and clothe adults and especially the weaker children. Water supplies can be strained and water can become scarce as well.

As a result of this, the nation’s government will have to use its money to feed the population instead of focusing on other important things like advancing its technology and its army. Maybe they will have to import more food or start refugee camps for hungry people. This means that the country will not develop into a powerful nation as easily. Also the next generation will lose a lot of people, and it is the young people who are needed to keep a nation strong.

As less food becomes available, more people will die because of famine and disease. If people do not eat well, they get sick and can’t work and support their families. When they are focusing on getting food, they can’t do many other things like get educated and try to improve their lives in other ways. When people are hungry, that is a basic need that they will do anything to meet so they don’t care about much else. Also an unhealthy population puts a lot of stress on the medical system.

People will also die because of the increased amount of wars and fighting among villages or groups who are trying to get enough food. More wars may occur because if a population grows it may need more land to support the people living on it. Some land, like fertile land or land near water, might become more desirable so people might fight for it. They may also use up the natural resources of the area they live in and they will have to attack a surrounding country to gain its natural resources. If everyone is competing for limited food, maybe they begin