Describe and explain governments attempts to control the number and distribution of people

The first 200 words of this essay...

Describe and explain governments attempts to control the number and distribution of people

'Every second 5 people are born and 2 people die, a net gain of 3 people. At this rate, the world population will double every 40 years and would be 12 billion in 40 years, 24 billion in 80 years, and more than 48 billion in 120 years.'

(United Nations, 2003)

Given this growth governments will and have to structure policies to manage both number (total population) and distribution (where people live often analysed as people per km2 [density]) within the country in order to meet the needs of its population and its resources in a sustainable manner. During late 1960's and 70's there was a major population scare, creating fairly widespread concern about the rapidly growing world population. Largely sparked off by the writing of P. Erlich ("The population bomb" 1968). The concern was that population growth would out pace the worlds capacity for food production. A great deal of pressure was put on governments to reduce population growth, for economic reasons as well as humanitarian ones. As a result countries such as China, Kenya, and Singapore adopted policies to try and