The purpose of the essay is to examine the overpopulation crisis affecting China and Indonesia. An unfavorable circumstance known as overpopulation occurs when the current population significantly exceeds the planet's carrying capacity. Indonesia is one of the top five most populous nations in the world. It is a unitary sovereign state in Southeast Asia with some possessions in Oceania. On the other side, China is located on the East Asian Continent. The two countries, which have total land and water areas of 1,905,659 and 9,596,961 square kilometers, respectively, are categorized as developing countries. Thus, China is the world's fourth-largest nation and is also a unitary state. This social issue has brought severe implications on the nations’ economic growth and development, and in this analysis, there will be a comparison of the pervasiveness of overpopulation in all the states and an examination of the structural factors that significantly contribute to the rapid population increase. As a result, it can be easy to explain how the rapid population growth in the two Asian states have a significant impact on the economic growth and development as well as the well-being and quality of life and standards of the affected individuals.
Pervasiveness of overpopulation in Indonesia
According to the world population data in appendix 1, Indonesia’s population in 2017 is approximately 263,991,379 people consisting of 132, 316,863 males and 133,070,041 females. Despite the decline in fertility rate in the past years to 2.42%, the population density per square kilometer is still increasing and is currently at 147 P/Km2. Additionally, 54.6% of the population is urban with a median age of approximately 28.3 years. The community is diverse with over 300 ethnic together with linguistic groups. However, the Javanese are dominant when it comes to politics with more than 40% of the total population. Jakarta, which is the largest city in Indonesia has around 10.135 million people accounting for the higher proportion of the number of individuals per city across the country. Furthermore, in Southeast Asia, Jakarta is the most populous province and is among the earth’s most populated cities. The birth rate of 17.25 births per a thousand people is believed to be healthy when compared to death rate which is at 6.28 deaths per 1000 people (Kohler, Behrman & Arianto, 2015). It is ranked number four after China, Russia and the United States of America that have the highest number of people but cover a larger surface area of land and water as oppose to Indonesia that comprises a small portion when compared to the three countries.
The family planning efforts by the government have remained stagnated over the decade of a democratic rule which has led to increased growth of population which threatens the largest economy in Southeast Asia. There is an estimated future increment in the number of people concentrated in the urban areas of the country as fertility continues to remain above the replacement levels. For instance, the standard can go as high as 2.8 children per Indonesian woman which is beyond the medium-fertility projection across the global population. The overpopulation issues have placed stress on the available resources resulting in hunger and drought in various regions of the state.
The problem has brought food shortage, high unemployment rates and urbanization in many provinces such as East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and West Nusa Tenggara, Papua (McDonald, 2014). As a result, the government, public, private sectors and other significant stakeholders are continuously coming up with useful measures and actions to curb the overpopulation challenge. They may include effectiveness in family planning, stimulation of small and medium-sized enterprises together with the improvement of the farming and agricultural practices. Due to the food shortage, the Indonesian government is spending over 500billion rupiah to enhance the importation of goods and services as the national production cannot fulfill the food needs of the 263,991,379 people. The unemployment rates are increasing Indonesia from one year to another as there are no working opportunities because the labor force market is already flooded. There has been unending degradation of the land and other resources, environmental pollution and expanded detrimental living conditions.
Pervasiveness of overpopulation in China
China’s approximated population in 2017 is 1,403,500,365 which has significantly increased with an annual growth of over 0.7% since 2011. The number of males is 711,645,290 representing 51.2% while females are 677,112,558 representing 48.8%. The fertility rate is approximately 1.61 which is slightly lower when compared to Indonesia that is currently at 2.42%. The country’s population density per square kilometer is still increasing and is currently at 151 P/Km2 from 147.2 P/Km2 in 2016. Despite the fact that China has the largest number of people when compared to other countries in the world, the country is not having enough babies as the birth rate is deteriorating year after year. Most of the nation’s major cities are already flooded with people as the urban population consists of 838,818,387 which is more than half of the total population (Cai and Lu, 2016). The leading cities in China that are most populated include Shanghai with 35.6 million people, followed by Guangzhou that has 26 million and lastly Beijing that has 25.7 million people. Other provinces that have larger population including but not limited to Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Chongqing with 23, 19, 14, and 8 million individuals respectively.
The unprecedented population changes within China has redrawn its demographic landscape which will undoubtedly have significant implications on the economic and social dynamics of the whole nation and the global economy as a whole. It is because China takes almost 18.80% of the world's population and thus having a far-reaching economic impact on the scarce resources available in the globe. Nevertheless, China has over 165 million internal migrants, and the ageing population is increasing day after which means that in the future, the country will not have enough labor force who can participate fully in the national production, growth and development (Hudson & Boer, 2008). Additionally, this ageing number of individuals will compel an unending federal reallocation of the resources together with priorities because more funds will be needed to meet the healthcare and pensions requirements. The increase in the number of aged people results from a dramatic decrease in the fertility rate accompanied by improved longevity which implies that there will be an increment in the prevalence of both chronic diseases and disability across the nation and its surroundings.
Conservative estimates have indicated that the food crisis experienced in the nation resulted in the starvation of over thirty million people as there was also an erosion of China’s natural capital. The free birth and fertility rates in the last decades eventually led to the depletion of the existing land’s fertility and henceforth, worsening the famines. Therefore, the overpopulation in China is an essential social problem that has led to unemployment of the young Chinese, food shortages, human sufferings, an eventually, the gradual collapse of the global biodiversity. However, the Chinese government is unrelentingly implementing corrective measures and actions to ensure that the one-child policy is being adopted by all the family members in different societies which will help in curbing the overpopulation social issue.
There has been unending degradation of the land and other resources, environmental pollution and expanded detrimental living conditions together with severe impacts on the national economy as well as education (Hudson & Boer, 2008). As China is still in the developing nations, its resources cannot support the overwhelming rapid population growth. This issue, in turn, has negatively interfered with the nation's gross domestic product despite the efforts in advancements of technology and other infrastructural activities. However, China’s has tried its best to deal with this social problem through consistent technological progress, which allows sufficient sustainability of the population growth, increment of the per capita income and a rise in people’s standards of living.
Structural factors resulting in overpopulation in Indonesia
After Indonesia gained its independence, there was an enhanced quality of healthcare that significantly contributed to an exploded population. The medical advancement through the assistance of the Indonesian government led to a reduced mortality rate as there were prevention and eradication of diseases that were incurable in the past decades. Furthermore, there is an Indonesian belief that when one has many children, there are possibilities of fortunes to carry out agricultural activities, fishing and other work that can lead to the national economic development. Men, who are the heads of families would want to have many children as a sign of wealth in the future, and there is a preference of a male child as opposed to a girl child (Kohler et al., 2015). This concept involves patriarchy where a society allows only males to take control of all family decisions and women are excluded. Impoverished families see their children as sources of income as the country is still developing and has few child labor to prevent them from being overworked in agricultural plantations. Therefore, if a woman gives birth to a baby girl, she will continue giving birth until the time she is capable of delivering her man a son who will be the heir of the family. As a result, there is no birth control which could have to curb the rate of population increase within the region. There are also some cultures among the Indonesian society that widely do not accept the birth control measures where they view the use of contraceptives as a taboo. Nevertheless, the social norms are still influencing the decisions concerning starting and continuation of a person’s family. This fact has contributed to overpopulated rural areas in Indonesia (McDonald, 2014).
Lack of appropriate education among the Indonesian citizens has significantly contributed to the overpopulated country as poor people do not understand the need to curb population growth efficiently. The deteriorating educational background results from poverty where parents are not able to provide the resources required for the academic progress of their young ones. Furthermore, globalization has both the direct and indirect effects of Indonesia's rapid population growth. It has led to movements of human resources from other nations to Indonesia and henceforth leading to an increase in the total population of the country.
The immigration rates are high in Indonesia as opposed to the emigration rates which threatens the nation’s scarce resources. More and more refugees and asylum seekers from neighboring countries in the middle east of Asia are camping in the country. They come from Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Afghanistan that are ran away from the impacts of terror and war. As a result of such immigration, Indonesia continues to host thousands of refugees who depend on the government and United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) for the provision of food aid and health medical care (McDonald, 2014). Henceforth, an increased population density and people are inhabiting the region to experience unfavorable challenges regarding the scarcity of resources.
Structural factors resulting in overpopulation in China
China's population started to increase rapidly after World War II as Mao and government encouraged all the Chinese families to focus on having as many children as possible. The reason behind such strategy was because they believed that the increase in population would lead to bringing more money into the country. Henceforth, an expansion in the national food production, building of a better army, establishment of better communication systems and lastly development of appropriate water control measures. After some time, the Chinese government realized that the population is not expanding proportionately to the available resources and started implementing birth control and family planning policies which were efficiently implemented in the urban areas (Cai and Lu, 2016). However, in the rural regions, law enforcement has become difficult, and the illiteracy of the poor people led to ignorance on the benefits of controlling the birth rates in China.
In the 1980s, China decided to embark on the projects of economic reform that could liberalize foreign trade as well as investment, and encouragement of the formation of both rural and private businesses that could boost the Chinese economy. The anticipated results would be an increment in the number of children people as the economy was conducive to providing conducive and better living standards of all the young ones (Hudson & Boer, 2008). Henceforth, the population continued to increase rapidly to the extent that it covers the most substantial part of the world’s total human population.
The number of rural to urban migrants has expanded overwhelmingly, and as shown in the table in Appendix 2, the urban population has exceeded the rural ones and hence, the urbanization effect. Unchecked immigration into the country has eventually led to overpopulation as china’s immigrants exceed the number of emigrants into other nations across the world. China has over 300, 000 refugees and this number continue to increase year after year, and many countries around the globe are urging the nation to take in more refugees which means that in the future more refugees asylum seekers will continue migrating into China. Furthermore, globalization has a significant contribution to this social problem. As China is a developing country, many companies from the western and developed nations have invaded the region to take advantage of China's natural resources. Such act leads to sacrificing of the environment and thus making the country to remain overpopulated.
Summaries and conclusion
Both Indonesia and China are overpopulated, and the primary structural factors that contributed to an increment of this problem include but not limited to immigration, the issue of patriarchy, and globalization together with the governments’ policies and regulations. Other elements identified in the four scholarly articles include better medical facilities, reduced mortality rates, reduction in the mortality rate, poverty and depletion of the precious resources by the companies from developed countries such as the US and UK. Such human overpopulation has brought pressing issues on the natural environment as it has led to an increment of the forces that result in global warming, the sixth mass extinction, consumption of the finite natural resources, habitat loss and lastly environmental pollution.
There is a loss of the fresh water in Indonesia as the resource has either been polluted or cannot be reached. Thus, many Indonesian's are suffering a lot as the water demand continues to exceed the supply from rivers, lakes and oceans. As the Chinese focus on innovation and technological advancements, there is a significant threat on the extinction of plant and animal species due to pollution and environmental degradation. Furthermore, China is also suffering from the lower life expectancy as it is among the fastest growing countries that have put in place policies and measures to curb the impact of globalization. Furthermore, Indonesia and China are currently facing the increased emergence of the new epidemics together with pandemics, fewer freedom restrictions, more intensive farming practices, climate changes and elevated crime rate in the nations.
References
Cai, F. and Lu, Y. (2016). Take-off, Persistence and Sustainability: The Demographic Factor in Chinese Growth. Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 3(2): 203–225. DOI: 10.1002/app5.139
Hudson, V.M. & Boer, A. (2008). China’s Security, China’s Demographics: Aging, Masculinization, and Fertility Policy. Brown Journal of World Affairs, 14(2):185-200.
Kohler, H. P., Behrman, J. R. & Arianto, D. (2015). Population and demography: Benefits and costs of the population and demography targets for the post-2015 development agenda. Copenhagen Consensus Project: Post-2015 Consensus. Retrieved on November 10, 2017, from,
http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/indonesia_packet_population.pdf
McDonald, P. (2014). The demography of Indonesia in comparative perspective. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50(1): 29–52. DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2014.896236.
Appendix
Appendix 1
Population of Indonesia (2018 and historical)
Year
Population
Yearly % Change
YearlyChange
Migrants (net)
Median Age
Fertility Rate
Density (P/Km²)
UrbanPop %
Urban Population
World Population
IndonesiaGlobal Rank
2018
266,794,980
1.06 %
2,803,601
-165,000
28.3
2.42
147
54.0 %
147,548,918
7,632,819,325
4
2017
263,991,379
1.10 %
2,875,923
-165,000
28.3
2.42
146
54.6 %
144,200,189
7,550,262,101
4
2016
261,115,456
1.14 %
2,953,343
-165,000
28.3
2.42
144
53.9 %
140,824,151
7,466,964,280
4
2015
258,162,113
1.26 %
3,127,598
-167,000
28.0
2.45
143
53.2 %
137,422,002
7,383,008,820
4
2010
242,524,123
1.36 %
3,162,279
-148,943
26.7
2.50
134
49.5 %
120,154,271
6,958,169,159
4
2005
226,712,730
1.39 %
3,034,460
-170,262
25.5
2.53
125
45.5 %
103,118,973
6,542,159,383
4
2000
211,540,429
1.44 %
2,916,516
-68,992
24.4
2.55
117
41.5 %
87,758,699
6,145,006,989
4
1995
196,957,849
1.66 %
3,104,206
-76,365
22.8
2.90
109
35.6 %
70,027,122
5,751,474,416
4
1990
181,436,821
1.92 %
3,284,925
-33,348
21.3
3.40
100
30.1 %
54,633,885
5,330,943,460
4
1985
165,012,196
2.27 %
3,504,366
-9,913
19.9
4.11
91
25.7 %
42,383,285
4,873,781,796
4
1980
147,490,365
2.44 %
3,353,250
-40,549
19.1
4.73
81
21.8 %
32,160,623
4,458,411,534
4
1975
130,724,115
2.63 %
3,177,867
-18,072
18.5
5.30
72
19.1 %
24,959,632
4,079,087,198
5
1970
114,834,780
2.74 %
2,905,177
-8,052
18.6
5.57
63
17.0 %
19,472,869
3,700,577,650
5
1965
100,308,894
2.70 %
2,503,276
-13,311
20.4
5.49
55
15.8 %
15,841,472
3,339,592,688
6
1960
87,792,515
2.57 %
2,092,944
-21,703
20.2
5.67
48
14.7 %
12,936,482
3,033,212,527
6
1955
77,327,794
2.14 %
1,556,896
-13,311
20.4
5.49
43
13.8 %
10,651,003
2,772,242,535
Source: Worldometers (www.Worldometers.info)
Appendix 2
Population of China (2018 and historical)
Year
Population
Yearly % Change
YearlyChange
Migrants (net)
Median Age
Fertility Rate
Density (P/Km²)
UrbanPop %
Urban Population
Country's Share ofWorld Pop
World Population
ChinaGlobal Rank
2018
1,415,045,928
0.39 %
5,528,531
-324,919
37.3
1.61
151
57.9 %
838,818,387
18.54 %
7,632,819,325
1
2017
1,409,517,397
0.43 %
6,017,032
-324,919
37.3
1.61
150
58.2 %
819,767,019
18.67 %
7,550,262,101
1
2016
1,403,500,365
0.46 %
6,471,812
-324,919
37.3
1.61
149
57.0 %
799,964,410
18.80 %
7,466,964,280
1
2015
1,397,028,553
0.54 %
7,454,690
-339,690
37.0
1.60
149
55.8 %
779,478,624
18.92 %
7,383,008,820
1
2010
1,359,755,102
0.57 %
7,626,322
-478,179
35.2
1.58
145
49.2 %
669,386,225
19.54 %
6,958,169,159
1
2005
1,321,623,490
0.59 %
7,684,904
-406,017
32.7
1.55
141
42.4 %
560,517,729
20.20 %
6,542,159,383
1
2000
1,283,198,970
0.69 %
8,651,793
-76,678
30.1
1.51
137
35.8 %
459,383,108
20.88 %
6,145,006,989
1
1995
1,239,940,004
1.13 %
13,498,961
-152,825
27.3
1.90
132
30.9 %
383,155,985
21.56 %
5,751,474,416
1
1990
1,172,445,200
1.83 %
20,316,362
-84,009
24.9
2.73
125
26.3 %
308,166,890
21.99 %
5,330,943,460
1
1985
1,070,863,389
1.50 %
15,397,216
-40,168
23.6
2.55
114
22.7 %
242,987,297
21.97 %
4,873,781,796
1
1980
993,877,310
1.54 %
14,586,445
-9,438
21.9
3.00
106
19.2 %
190,483,105
22.29 %
4,458,411,534
1
1975
920,945,083
2.23 %
19,231,325
-216,297
20.4
4.77
98
17.3 %
158,961,220
22.58 %
4,079,087,198
1
1970
824,788,457
2.68 %
20,445,255
-32,058
19.3
6.25
88
17.2 %
141,701,722
22.29 %
3,700,577,650
1
1965
722,562,183
1.90 %
12,975,208
-44,170
22.3
6.03
77
17.8 %
128,692,283
21.64 %
3,339,592,688
1
1960
657,686,143
1.49 %
9,370,349
-11,907
21.4
5.40
70
16.0 %
105,426,589
21.68 %
3,033,212,527
1
1955
610,834,396
1.96 %
11,283,024
-44,170
22.3
6.03
65
13.6 %
83,276,451
22.03 %
2,772,242,535
1
Source: Worldometers (www.Worldometers.info)
We will email this sample to you with pleasure!
Type your email