Which Countries Have The Fastest Growing Population?

Over population (wikipedia)

Experts say the global population will reach 10 billion by 2060. But population growth in countries like China and the US has remained steady and or even decreased over the last few decades. So, which countries actually have the fastest growing populations?

Well, impoverished countries tend to populate faster than their developed counterparts. In fact, most of the fastest-growing countries are in Africa, which has an overall population that is expected to double over the next 40 years. This is particularly true in South Sudan, which became an autonomous state in 2005 and an independent nation in 2011. The country's population has grown by roughly four percent every year, compared to a global growth rate of just over 1% a year. One expert says that this partially reflects South Sudan’s effort to rebuild their populace after more than 50 years of conflict with the North. But others place the emphasis on the country’s shockingly high fertility rate of more than five births-per-woman, compared to the global average of almost two-and-a-half. Sex Education is uncommon in South Sudan, and roughly two percent of women use modern methods of contraception, due to lack of access and cultural norms that discourage birth control.

One of the fastest growing populations outside of Africa is the small middle eastern country of Oman. The country’s population has nearly doubled in the last 25 years, and grown by nearly 10 percent every year since 2011. Interestingly, these numbers do not reflect high fertility rates. Women in Oman, on average, between two and three children each, compared to more than eight per woman in the 1980’s. Instead, Oman’s growth rate is largely a result of immigration. Out of a population of four million, nearly half are immigrants. Most come from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in the hope of finding a job in Oman’s rapidly growing economy. This is particularly prevalent in its capital, Muscat, where immigrants actually outnumber Omani nationals.

A similar phenomenon can be found in Lebanon, which, in 2014 showed a population growth rate of nearly ten percent. Considering the country’s extremely low fertility rate, Lebanon’s sudden growth can almost entirely be attributed to an influx of refugees from neighboring Syria, Palestine and Iraq. Refugees account for more than a quarter of Lebanon’s population, a larger proportion than any country in the world. This has placed a huge burden on Lebanon’s relatively weak economy and unstable infrastructure and has led the country to crack down on residency and border control.

For a lot of countries, moderate population growth reflects a healthy economy and functional society. But for other nations, particularly those which are less developed, a growing population brings an entirely new set of challenges. More people means a heightened demand for resources and infrastructure, as well as jobs and housing. As the global population continues to grow, these problems will only become larger in regions that are ill-equipped to handle them. On the other side of the spectrum are countries with rapidly dwindling populations, which comes with it’s own enormous set of problems and often complicated causes.

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