The population of our ancestors a few million years ago was confined to Africa and numbered only in hundred-thousands.
By the time our ancestors invented agriculture, the information started passing from generation to generation.
The transmission of knowledge about hunting, gathering and preparation of food and identification of enemies helped in the expansion of agriculture and growth of population.
thumbs.dreamstime.com
The development of agriculture around 8000 B.C. resulted into the decline of death rate. It is guessed that the increased food supply- led to better nutrition, greater resistance to disease, increased longevity of life and hence a growth in population.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
This may be correct, but we have no conclusive proof that death rates fell. They may have even risen shortly after the advent of agriculture.
Disease spread more rapidly in closely packed communities than in small and relatively isolated hunting and gathering bands.
It is also possible that increase in birth rates after the advent of agriculture resulted in some social changes. Rules and sanctions that had been used to keep hunting and gathering bands small and in balance with their resources may have been relaxed in agrarian societies that required more labour to produce food
There are other evidences also which prove that the population after the advent of agriculture increased at a faster pace.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Using evidence from living populations of hunters and gatherers such as the San and Kung (Bushmen of Kalahari Desert), supporters of this view have concluded that our ancestral hunters and gatherers consciously tried to space the births of their children.
Child spacing among nomadic hunters and gatherers was presumably necessitated partly by the inability of the mother to carry more than one child.
Another likely reason would have been the need to nurse each child for at least three years because the environment lacked the ‘soft-food’ required for earlier weaning. Moreover, it appears likely that prolonged breast-feeding itself may help in suppressing fertility.
Infanticide may also have been practiced widely among hunter-gatherers, when children were born too soon and in time of scarcity.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The Polynesians, who live in the islands in Pacific Ocean, also practiced infanticide, polyandry, non-marriage of landless younger sons, and abstention from sexual activity for a period of time after birth of a child, coitus interruption and abortion.
When man started agriculture, the imperatives for child spacing disappeared and population started growing at a faster pace. It is generally agreed that agriculture and high nasality (birth rate) go hand in hand. The prime reason for this is the perceived economic value of children to farming families.
In other words, in agrarian societies, children are commonly viewed as economic assets. They serve as extra hands on the farm and take care of parents in their old age.
However, the growth in human population did not retain after the Agricultural Revolution. Civilizations rose, flourished and disintegrated; periods of good and bad weather occurred; epidemics, famines and wars took their toll.
Despite fluctuations in the birth and death rates, agriculture permitted the existence not only of higher population densities and settled village life but also of large-scale cooperative ventures, specialization of labour, development of crafts (pottery making etc.) and social stratification.
The growth and development of irrigation and the emergence of towns and cities concentrated economic power in the hands of numerically small elite, who controlled much of the land and food resources.
The great mass of society, however, consisted of peasants and labourers who worked in the land and produced food surpluses upon which the entire social structure was built.
During the medieval period of human history, there was more emphasis on commerce and trade. This resulted in the growth and development of towns and cities and the consequent increase in the demand of consumer goods.
It was the period when the landowners wished to put more land to the plough. Gradually, in Europe, agriculture started taking the shape of big business.
The life expectancy (the number of years an infant is expected to live), however, remained below thirty-five years. The doubling time for the world population was about 1,000 years.
The main characteristics of population of the world prior to the Industrial Revolution were high infant mortality, short life expectancy, periodic famines and undernourishment, vulnerability to epidemics, high birth and death rates, and wide fluctuations in death and corresponding birth rates. The outcome of these conditions was that, although there were sharp periods of population decline, they were followed by short-term revival. The result was a slow, long-term increase in population numbers.
The second major turning point in the history of population growth came with the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution led to the systematization of production with the help of power-driven machine. This resulted in high output per capita and rapid accumulation of wealth.
The distinguishing feature of the Industrial Revolution was that fossil fuels, primarily coal, provided an energy source other than animal muscles, wind or water power. The use of fossil fuels allowed productivity to increase rapidly because human effort was supplemented by powered mechanical devices.
The Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America created a new society in which the primary activities (agriculture, forestry, mining, fisheries) began to decline and the secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (services) activities began to take an increasingly important role.
This led to diversity in national economy. Machines were increasingly utilized to supplement or replace human effort.
These machines required the application of scientific knowledge to design and maintain them. Family became as the unit of production.
Goods were produced for sale in regional, national and international markets. There occurred specialization in economic activities. The population was tempted to migrate from rural to urban areas and the productivity per capita increased substantially.
At the time of the Industrial Revolution, urban population increased rapidly, and living standards in new industrial towns were abysmal, especially for the poorer families.
Consequently, disease flourished in over-crowded, unsanitary urban settings, and death rates were often catastrophic when cholera epidemics resulted from contaminated water supplies. Similarly, the manufacturing processes produced wastes that polluted the air, land and water.
In the early phase of Industrial Revolution, the education system was not well-developed, literacy rate was low, medical facilities were not adequate, and the per capita income and the standard of living were also low.
The Industrial Revolution resulted in an uneducated peasantry migrating to the expanding urban centers created numerous socio-economic and cultural problems.
Thus, it is clear that the world’s population has greatly increased in the last few centuries, but the rate of increase quickened only after 1900 and has remained so during the last six decades, particularly after the Second World War
The tremendous growth of population may be appreciated from the fact that in 1950 the total population of the world was more than 2,523 million which rose to more than twice in 48 years, being 6 billion in 1999.
The estimated population of the world at the present growth rate would be about 8,039 million in 2025 and about 9,000 million in 2050.
It may also be observed that the population growth rate would be highest in Asia, followed by Africa and Latin America.
There would be a marginal increase in the population of Anglo-America (USA, Canada) and Oceania, while the population of Europe will decline from 729.40 million in 1998 to about 701.07 million in 2025 and 637.58 million in 2050.
The negative growth in population of Europe is a point of great concern for the Europeans. Most of the European countries have, consequently, adopted the policy to give incentives to its people to produce more children.
Each year, the world population grows by almost 95 million an increase of over 2.8 people each second. The world population will continue to grow at least until 2050.
The third and fourth positions are occupied by USA (304 million) and Indonesia (229 million). Brazil, Pakistan, Russia and Bangladesh rank fifth to eighth, followed by Japan 128 million.
According to the given estimates, the population of Bangladesh and India would double in 33 and 36 years respectively.
It may also be seen from that the populations of UK, Japan, France and USA are growing at a snail pace, as the doubling period of population in UK is 300 years, Japan (350 years), France (200 years) and USA (120 years).
Russia and Germany are the two countries in which the population may not be doubled even after five hundred years. Contrary to this, if the negative growth rate of population in Russia, Germany and other developed countries continues, the greater parts of Europe would be de-populated.
It is against this background the population policies are being formulated in European countries to encourage the growth of population. While providing incentives for larger families, the European governments may think to liberalize their immigration policies.
For example, in 2025, the total population of China will be 1,441 million or 23 per cent of the world population. In 2001, India’s population was 1,020 million, constituting 16.87 per cent of the world population, which has risen to 1,210 million in 2011, accounting to 17.64 per cent of the world population.
Contrary to this, the percentage share of USA which was 5 per cent in 2000 will decline to 4.74 per cent in 2025. The share of Japan and Brazil in the world population will also decline in the coming decades, while Pakistan and Bangladesh will record an alarmingly stupendous growth in population.
The population of Pakistan in 2000 was 156.5 million which is likely to become 2,069 million in 2025 and its share in the world population will go up from 2.6 per cent in 2000 to about 3.93 per cent in 2025.
A similar trend is expected in Bangladesh where the population will raise up to 180 million in 2025, having a share of about 3 per cent of the world population.
According to United Nations World Population Prospects (2008), the population of developed countries will remain same whereas in 50 least developed countries it will become more than double.