Causes of Rapid Population change and the effects of rapid population change

Hopely Farm settlement

• Improvement in the basic health care which has a lowered the death rate
• Cultural factors for example, the desire to have a male child factor in the patriarchal societies
• Need for labour in subsistence economies
• Prestige of large family
• Religious beliefs on contraceptives e.g. Catholics
• Low level of education and illiteracy particularly among women
• Low levels of contraceptive prevalence-contraceptives not readily available to people who need them

Effects of rapid population change

• Rapid population growth becomes a liability when it creates an imbalance between population and resources required to sustain that population
• This will in turn:
• Create population pressure on the land, as is the case in most of Zimbabwe’s communal areas
• Result in over-exploitation of resources resulting in land degradation and erosion
• Force farmers off the land to go and look for employment in the already overcrowded urban areas
• Increase poverty
• Increase rural-urban migrations, thus increasing unemployment
• Increase pressure on services for example, schools health, water and sanitation as is the case in most urban centres in developing countries
• Reduce quality of life, increase homelessness and increases squatting for example, squatter settlements at Porta Farm near Norton town and  Hopely Farm near Harare.

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