The Overpopulation Myth. Series on Public Issues No. 4.

In this booklet, one of a series intended to apply economic principles to major social and political issues of the day, it is argued that although doomsayers claim that world population growth is threatening the ability of the world to feed itself and that drastic measures should be taken to curb population growth, the world population situation is not that bad. By using simple economics to analyze what determines the level and rate of growth of the population, one can show that the rate of population growth is the result of, among other things, economic factors. Given that, it is likely that the economics of population will in time dictate a slower rate of population growth. A look at the world's nations reveals that there is no relation between the income per capita of a country and that country's population per square kilometer. However, the rate of growth of the population of a country and that country's per capita income are related, in that high income countries have low rates of population growth and that low income countries have high rates of population growth. It is concluded that the major determinant in such growth concerns the cost and benefits of having children, and that as countries become more industrialized, the returns from large families, and hence the desire to have them, will decrease. (LH)