Population Growth In Africa Essay

Gokce Ege Saatcioglu

May 10, 2014

ECP3113

How is Africa’s rapid population growth affecting global demographics and economics?

Introduction

Three centuries ago, the United Kingdom was at the forefront of the industrial revolution; soon after, most of Western Europe followed with massive industrialization and exponential population growth. This period marked a paradigm shift in both economic and demographic models. For example, Malthus’s model for population growth was refuted with new trends of sustainable population growth coupled with rapid industrialization. This trend would continue until the late 1900s until the western industrialized countries started to plateau and eventually regress in terms of population growth.

In 1950 there were two Europeans for every African; however with current trends, there will be two Africans for every European (The Economist, 2009). Africa is a different continent than it was a few decades ago. A lot has changed since the days of European colonization. Like the American West in the late 1800s, Africa is a promising yet dangerous frontier with new and exciting firms and niche markets forming on each corner of the vast African continent. Parts of Africa are still plagued with famine and disease but new improvements in medicine and technology are making it more efficient and cheap to develop the continent from a tribal one to an industrial one.

The data shows that Africa’s growth rate is exceeding all other continental growth rates and her economic growth rates are high as well. In fact, Africa is the third fasted growing region in the world trailing East Asia and the Middle East. Africa’s high population growth rates definitely helped spur economic growth rates but so did increasing commodity ...

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...ls, and minerals; however, natural resources account for a massive 32% of GDP from 2000 through 2008. The modern African economy is a large supplier of raw material to developed countries; however, Africa’s economy can be very sensitive to demand shocks that they cannot control. In recent years, Africa’s place in the global economy has been shaky, despite high growth. There is little diversification of industries, massive capital and intellectual flight, and declining exports. Some African countries have tried to offset the decline in the economy by liberalizing trade and markets and by improving management of the macro economy, but there are deeper problems that need to be solved first. Africa needs to focus on reforming its institutions, rebuilding its decaying infrastructure, and solve its deteriorating economic capacity before solving its superficial problems.