IMPORTANCE OF POPULATION

IMPORTANCE OF POPULATION

The population in itself is a resource. It has the ability to mobilize, scrutinize, analyse and synthesis all other types of resources and then fashion them out to produce all whatever is needed. Man, using his naturally endowed talent places him above all other forms of resources. He is able to raise and convert other resources which he uses as food for himself and for the desired living things around him. Others he fashion out to produce working tools, provide both soft and hardware and to preserve for future use.

The most relevant elements of the population are its size, rate of growth, spatial distribution, its demographic structure (changing number of births, deaths, diseases etc in a community for a period of time) and its quality in terms of the educational level, health and social welfare. These determine the functions of the populations.

The population is the indicator of the potential level of development that is attainable in any society. This explains itself by the living standard of the people. It is the measure of the actual performance of the development effort set by a society.

The populations provides the workforce (both skilled and unskilled) needed to carry all projects set for development within any community.

All products of a society require a consumable market which serve as a motivating factor for further research for more production. This can only be obtained and guaranteed by the population.

All over the world, the spatial pattern of development is determined by the existing populations and its pattern of distribution.

The populations factor guides government policies in areas of revenue allocation, distribution of infrastructural facilities and the creation of administrative units within a country.

People that constitute the populations of any area are instrumental to the development and progress of their area. This explains itself in their effort to attract growth-promoting institutions such as schools, health facilities, industries of different types and capacities, road networks, financial institutions as well as commercial enterprises. As we can observe, all these developments differ from place to place based on the social, economic and the political status of the people that form the populations. In other words, to positively develop an environment depends on the quality of the populations that occupies that environment. This quality can only be obtained through better education, better political awareness and better exposure to external ideas.

At this juncture, we need to understand the different levels of population and the implication of each. The question before us is “What are they?”

1. i) Over : By definition, over population is that types of population that exceeds the resources of its environment. The problems that this populations faces are that all available resources become inadequate and are over used. This creates problem of development.
2. ii) Under : This is defined as a population that is not up to the standard to develop the resources of its environment adequately. Problems of this type of populations are that resources are wasted, no significant manpower to development the resources of its environment.

iii)        Threshold : Some writers refer to this as the population carrying capacity. It defines a situation where the population matches with the available resources. This is the ideal population level every society (country) should try to maintain. The advantages of the threshold population is that it creates room for meaningful development. The available resources are not over stressed and are not under utilized. Rather, they are just adequate and this encourages all aspects of development. Man power is developed because the available resources can support that. The developed man-power therefore put these resources to reasonable uses to acquire the desired results which the population requires.