The Effects of Population on Economic Growth In Nigeria

Abstract

Population and economic growth commonly entails to the study of the costs of population trends on human welfare, socio-economic development, and the natural environment. Though there is a long ritual of scholarship on the costs of population trends, starting with Malthus to modern researchers. However, modern research on population and its impacts on development lack a cumulative research tradition and dominant paradigm. The main limitation of the literature, which lies largely outside the body of modern demography, embraces a “doomsday scenario” that assumes that population growth pose a grave consequence on human wellbeing and its natural environment. Consequently there are various factors that lead to population increase in Nigeria such as religion and lack of education. However, the outcomes of population increase are identified as environmental degradation, human congestion, and high unemployment rate. This paper concludes that they could be a positive growth in Nigeria if the recommendations outlined here are strictly adhered to such as education of the girl child, strict adherence to family planning and measures should be adopted to check excessive environmental degradation rate in Nigeria.

Keywords: Population growth, economic development