Introduction

The growth of African populations and the increase in the number of poor people have proven to be a challenge for countries, raising humanitarian and development crises that, if not safeguarded, will lead to the collapse of the continent.

Population Growth: Prospects for Development or Utopia

Population growth is a term adopted in 1855 by the writer Achille Guilard, which refers to the increase in the absolute number of people living in a given area. This growth depends on factors such as: vegetative growth, absolute growth, mortality and infant mortality rates, net migration, longevity rates and improvements in quality of life.

The world population has increased from just over 2,000,000,000 in 1950 to 8,000,000,000 in 2024, a growth of 400% in 74 years. And it is estimated that by 2050 there will be around 9,700,000,000 people in the world. Contrary to expectations of the possibility of an increase in the quality of life, it is clear that the poverty rate is still high in the world, with around 1,300,000,000 people, that is, 18%, living on less than $1.9 per day. 

Quality of Life in Africa and the Challenges of Population Growth

The African continent has seen a significant population growth, with an estimated increase from the current 1,400,000,000 population to 2,500,000,000 by 2050. The birth rate is around 4.7 children per woman, which is a challenge for the government sector, creating problems for each state and would completely overwhelm even a country like Germany. In this context, two obvious problems arise: improving the population’s quality of life with a view to reducing the birth rate or creating probity laws on maximum numbers of children per woman.

Improving the quality of life is a response to reducing the birth rate, as this improves the education sector, providing access to food, health and family planning. The application of birth probability laws on a continent with a poverty rate of around 34% and the total wealth of the continent being only 0.1% of the population, where health, education and infrastructure services are low, is not efficient. Laws in this area should be applied as a means of solving the problem, not as the solution to the problem.

Conclusion

The African continent is greatly affected by population growth, which undermines the provision of effective means by governments to alleviate the hunger that exists in the population: the creation of adequate education, food and infrastructure services to improve the population; the application of birth probity laws will direct the population, as was seen in Ethiopia. The country has developed enormously in the last 25 years; the infant mortality rate has been reduced by half, school enrolment has doubled and life expectancy has increased considerably, and the number of children per family has fallen to around four.

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