Economics Blog

  Optimum population             Optimum population is the ideal size of a population that matches the available resources of a country and gives the maximum output per person. Optimum population is the ideal number of people in a country that makes the best use of its available resources. A country has enough land, factories, machines and technology to produce goods and services for 1 million people.If the population is only 500,000, some resources may not be fully used. If the population is 1 million, all resources can be used efficiently, and output per person is at its highest. This is the optimum population. Maldives has limited land and natural resources. If the population is too small, some resources may not be fully used. If the population is too large, resources such as land, housing and infrastructure may become insufficient.The optimum population is the population size that allows Maldives to achieve the highest output per person using its a...

  Discuss the reasons for different rates of population growth In favour: Reasons why population growth may be high A country may have a high population growth rate due to a high birth rate. This may occur when the population is young, women marry at an early age and have more children. A lack of education and limited job opportunities for women may also encourage larger families. In addition, if children are cheap to bring up and family planning is not widely available, the birth rate is likely to be high. A country may also experience high population growth due to a low death rate. Good healthcare, healthy diets, better housing and improved living conditions can reduce the death rate. This means more people survive for longer, increasing the population size. In addition, if more people immigrate into a country than emigrate from it, net migration will be positive, increasing population growth. Against: Reasons why population growth may be low In contrast, a country may ...