Population Changes
Rapid population growth, especially in developing nations, became a persistent concern of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Sometimes religious and cultural beliefs prohibited efforts at
population control. In the early twentieth century, efforts to eradicate disease and improve sanitation
led to marked population increases in developing nations in Asia. In Africa, which began the century
with low population levels, high birth rates, and lower mortality rates resulted in significant
population increases. These population trends continued in spite of the high incidence of AIDS in
Africa.
Despite advances in health care, those living in poverty continued to struggle with diseases such as
cholera, tuberculosis, and malaria. New epidemics emerged, such as the influenza pandemic of 1918
to 1919, Ebola, and AIDS. The incidence of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and
diabetes increased because of increases in life expectancy and lifestyle changes.
In Europe, the population decline and labor shortages of the 1950s and 1960s caused Western
European governments to seek workers from southern Europe and the non-Western world. Many of
these guest workers migrated to Western Europe from the West Indies, North Africa, Turkey, and
Pakistan. Guest workers received very low wages and were often subjected to discrimination and
violence from Western Europeans. This discrimination heightened in the 1980s because of a
slowdown in European economies and the growing size of the guest worker population. Not all
immigrants were welcomed. Xenophobia , an intense fear of foreigners, often was shown in protests,
race riots, and government policies restricting citizenship.
In contrast to European demographic patterns, East Asian countries experienced high population
growth. By the 1980s, for example, South Korea had the highest population density in the world. As a
result, many South Koreans migrated to other countries. The government of South Korea encouraged
its people to limit the size of their families, while the Japanese government addressed its ever-
increasing population by promoting birth control and abortion.
The People’s Republic of China attempted to control its huge population by instituting policies
designed to limit family size. In the 1960s, rural couples were limited to one child and urban couples
to two. By the 1980s, only one child per family was allowed. These programs greatly reduced the
Chinese birth rate at the expense of forced abortions and sterilizations. Female infanticide increased.
Other infants were hidden among family members in rural areas where recordkeeping was not as
accurate as in urban areas. By 2007, the one-child policy had relaxed in some regions of China to
permit urban couples who themselves were only children to give birth to two children.
In Central Asia, the Soviet Union experienced ethnic divisions as a result of population changes.
By the 1970s, the Muslim population in the southern Soviet republics had grown rapidly and
presented a threat to the dominance of the Russian culture.
Efforts to Improve Agricultural Production
One of the solutions to growing population concerns was to improve agricultural productivity in
developing nations. The Green Revolution was a program that increased crop yields through the use
of high-yield, disease-resistant crops, as well as fertilizers, pesticides, and efficient irrigation
methods. Especially effective in India and other parts of Asia, it also experienced some success in
Latin America. The Green Revolution was criticized for its use of pesticides and fertilizers that
caused pollution and cancer. Also, chemicals were expensive, making the program more accessible to
large landowners and agricultural businesses.