This book addresses nine relevant questions: Will population growth reduce the growth rate of per capita income because it reduces the per capita availability of exhaustible resources? How about for renewable resources? Will population growth aggravate degradation of the natural environment? Does more rapid growth reduce worker output and consumption? Do rapid growth and greater density lead to productivity gains through scale economies and thereby raise per capita income? Will rapid population growth reduce per capita levels of education and health? Will it increase inequality of income distribution? Is it an important source of labor problems and city population absorption? And, finally, do the economic effects of population growth justify government programs to reduce fertility that go beyond the provision of family planning services?

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Population and Development addresses important issues at the heart of the problems of developing countries. How these countries address the common difficulties of population growth, including mortality and fertility decline, population redistribution including internal migration and urbanization, and also international migration, for both source countries and for destination countries. How and why has population change affected development – both positively and negatively? How and why has development affected population change – both growth and distribution? The book opens with an introduction, preceding the ten substantive chapters, covering some of the broader issues for population studies and development studies and the relationships between them. The first three chapters set out the main concepts and theoretical discussions on how population affects development and also how development affects population. Detailed chapters then cover each of the three main components of population change – fertility, mortality and finally migration. These are followed by chapters on the impacts of age structures, including the potential for a demographic dividend, and of the more qualitative aspects of human resource development through formal education and ICTs, with further chapters on population policies and population futures. The book incorporates illustrative text boxes and case studies on regions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia which elaborate the broader theoretical and conceptual substance of the ten major chapters. Each chapter has ‘Discussion Questions’ and ‘Sources and Further Reading’ sections, and there is an extensive integrated References section. The arguments of the book bring together a large but fairly loosely integrated literature from population studies, development studies and geography in a conceptually coordinated, empirically wide-ranging and challenging discussion. It is targeted at an audience in undergraduate courses in Geography and in Masters courses in Development Studies and Population Studies. The books succinct but erudite structure means it can be used either as a course text book, or as a basic reference on a range of current issues and likely concerns at the interface between Geography, Development Studies and Population Studies.

There is long-standing debate on how population growth affects national economies. A new report from Population Matters examines the history of this debate and synthesizes current research on the topic. The authors, led by Harvard economist David Bloom, conclude that population age structure, more than size or growth per se, affects economic development, and that reducing high fertility can create opportunities for economic growth if the right kinds of educational, health, and labor-market policies are in place. The report also examines specific regions of the world and how their differing policy environments have affected the relationship between population change and economic development.

The demographic transition and its related effects of population growth, fertility decline and ageing populations are fraught with controversy. When discussed in relation to the global south and the modern project of development, the questions and answers become more problematic. Population and Development offers an expert guide on the demographic transition, from its origins in Enlightenment Europe through to the rest of the world. Tim Dyson examines how, while the phenomenon continues to cause unsustainable population growth with serious economic and environmental implications, its processes have underlain previous periods of sustained economic growth, helped to liberate women from the domestic domain, and contributed greatly to the rise of modern democracy. This accessible yet scholarly analysis will enable any student or expert in development studies to understand complex and vital demographic theory.

The field of political demography - the politics of population change - is dramatically underrepresented in political science. At a time when demographic changes - aging in the rich world, youth bulges in the developing world, ethnic and religious shifts, migration, and urbanization - are waxing as never before, this neglect is especially glaring and starkly contrasts with the enormous interest coming from policymakers and the media. "Ten years ago, [demography] was hardly on the radar screen," remarks Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two contributors to this volume. "Today," they continue, "it dominates almost any discussion of America's long-term fiscal, economic, or foreign-policy direction." Demography is the most predictable of the social sciences: children born in the last five years will be the new workers, voters, soldiers, and potential insurgents of 2025 and the political elites of the 2050s. Whether in the West or the developing world, political scientists urgently need to understand the tectonics of demography in order to grasp the full context of today's political developments. This book begins to fill the gap from a global and historical perspective and with the hope that scholars and policymakers will take its insights on board to develop enlightened policies for our collective future.

This book takes the reader into some of the most intransigent social, economic, and political issues that impact achieving sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. Through meticulous analysis of the integrated relationships between population, development, and the environment, the chapters in this volume investigate the impacts of hydropower development on fragile ecosystems; mining, landslides and environmental degradation; deforestation; water and food security; rural-urban migration, poverty alleviation, civil society and community empowerment; and how disaster recovery requires multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary approaches that take into account governance, culture, and leadership. Legal frameworks may be legislated, but are often rarely implemented. The book will be valuable to students of sustainability, population and development, and governmental policy advising sectors as well as the NGO and humanitarian sectors. The distinctive characteristic of this book is that it encapsulates an integrated, multi-disciplinary focus which brings to the discussion both robust empirical research and challenging policy applications in the investigation of how the sustainable development goals may be achieved in Asia and the Pacific.