• Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Congo are projected to have population growth rates greater than 2% per year over the next generation
Figure 5.3 - Expected Population Growth Rates, 1997-2015
Premodern Economic “Growth”
• Thomas R. Malthus
• first academic professor of economics • introduced the idea that increases in technology inevitably
run into natural resource scarcity
The Demographic Transition
• As material standards of living rise far above subsistence, countries undergo a demographic transition
• birth rates rise • death rates fall • birth rates fall
American Long-Run Growth, 1800-1973
• Growth slowed slightly during the Great Depression and World War II
• 1.4 percent per year from 1929 to 1950
• Growth accelerated from 1950 to 1973