Population Growth and Foreign Aid

Report Outline
Dimensions of World Population Growth
Foreign Aid in Heavily Populated Areas
Outlook for Controlling Population Growth
Political Implications of Population Problem

Dimensions of World Population Growth

Growth of the populations of underdeveloped countries at an extraordinarily rapid rate is multiplying their problems and adding a new dimension to the whole question of foreign aid. The Eisenhower administration is making plans to create a sizable economic development fund to counter threats of Communist encroachment in countries “where moderate leaders despair of being able to lift their nations out of hopeless poverty and stagnation.” Even with outside assistance, however, prospects for improving living standards in these countries are seriously limited by the constant pressure of expanding population.

The United States itself has added 20 million persons to its population in the brief span since 1950. Current rates of growth, if maintained, will about double the present total of 170 million inhabitants by the end of the century. The chronic shortage of educational facilities is illustrative of economic strains imposed on this country by the added numbers. But the impact of population growth on available resources is far more severe in less fortunately situated countries.

Chief Trouble Areas; Asia, Africa, Latin America

World population is expanding at a rate of 43 million persons a year, or more than 120,000 persons every day. There are nearly a billion more people in the world today than there were in 1920, and the present global population of about 2.8 billion is expected to approach 5 billion by the year 2000. Almost every country is experiencing growth, although rates of increase vary widely. The United States is growing more rapidly than the industrial nations of Europe, but not so rapidly as the less developed countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These are the areas where, according to demographers and economists alike, a “population explosion” is well under way.