Overpopulation transpires once there are insufficient resources on earth to sustain its populace. Every day the world's population grows nearer to that limit. Swelling populations in some countries are becoming a liability, and no one can afford to ignore this expanding problem. Encyclopedia Britannica (2014) defines overpopulation as an excessive number of people in an area to the point overcrowding, depletion of natural resources or environmental deterioration. One of the common features of underdeveloped countries is a rapid rate of population growth. The problems of poverty and overpopulation are examples of causes of underdevelopment forming vicious cycle and making economic development more difficult. Most of the problem that the third world countries face today such ocean depletion, food and water shortages, pollution and global warming that are the effects of overpopulation. The more people there are, the more resources consumed and the more are wasted. Some may argue that overpopulation a symptom of underdevelopment. Whereas a more credible argument is that overpopulation is a cause of underdevelopment. This essay will present arguments that unfair distribution of resources per capita, urban migration, limited access to social resources affects the public that lead to underdevelopment.
The first factor of overpopulation as a cause of underdevelopment is unfair distribution of resources. An individual carrying capacity of a country is considered as a function of food consumption per capita. Overpopulation does not depend only on the size or density of the population, but on the ratio of population to available sustainable resources as well. It is also dependent on how resources are managed and distributed throughout the population. The necessary resources sustain lives that need clean water, clean air, food and shelter as well as proper sewage treatment, waste disposal and energy supply (Mulligan & Crampton, 2005).