Demographic Dividend

Demographic dividend and Urbanization in third world countries

Abstract: A study between the demographic dividend and urbanization in third world countries is quite important to understand. Urbanization is the process in which the rural population shifts to the urban areas in search of better opportunities and more and more places take characteristics of a city. The paper talks about how urbanization affects a country's economy. The Demographic dividend phase of the demographic transition model has been explained in detail. The age structure, the population growth , the problems and the benefits have been analyzed. Urbanization has certain positive and negative impacts and both of them have been discussed. It considers the two optimistic

Urbanization increases the means of sustenance. With improvement in all fields and newer technology coming up agriculture and production becomes easier too. According to Thomas Malthus, "the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence, That population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase, and, That the superior power of population is repressed, and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence, by misery and vice''. He even explained that food increases arithmetically while population increases geometrically and hence a time can come when the population on earth will exceed its carrying capacity. Malthus had a pessimistic approach towards population growth. He believed higher the population higher would be the amount of resources required for them to sustain and would thus decrease a country's economy. They would require more number of homes, more jobs, more infrastructure. this can even be constructed in the long run if the population doesn’t grow at a fast pace, but in periods of rapid population growth, the population grows faster than the infrastructure available to accommodate it and hence increasing number of slums, depletion of resources etc. In such a case population growth does pose a challenge in front of economists, planners and the governing body. The developments of the

It depends on a country's existing resources and abilities. Population trends including growth, decline, migration may act as a resource or an opportunity or they may even pose a challenge to the countries. Depending on availability of resources, it can create internal peace or conflict to which countries must respond. There might be cities with incredible thriving opportunities while others with dense population, over crowdedness, squalor housing etc. However these cities, any day would provide better and more opportunities to grow than the rural areas. However if urbanization takes place near a coastal area, there are quite a few chances of natural calamities and disaster to occur, and in such a case the loss to a country's economy would be severe. For urbanization to be beneficial, Our political and social structure needs to be developed too. It has to be that efficient that in such a case, the precautions are taken well before and the steps to mitigate the disaster are already on paper. Given the right kind of policy environment, all the countries in this phase are expected to reap the benefits of urbanization , and produce a sustained period of economic growth treating population growth as a resource. Policy makers should consider the focal point as discussed many times 'The large working force.' They should consider how to maximize the benefits by allowing extra labor to be used productively in the economy