UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

KAMPALA CAMPUS

NAME : MUKASA NASSAR

REGISTRATION NUMBER : KS08B15/474

COURSE : BSWSA

COURSE UNIT : DEMOGRAPHY

YEAR : THREE

LECTURER : MUSHONI JOHN

TUTOR : ANIBAYA SUSAN

QUESTION:
Using relevant examples from a country well known to you, Population leads to
development and vice versa. Discuss

Population is a measure of how many persons are living in a specific geographic territory or area.
Population growth refers to an increase in the population of a particular country. It comes about
when there is an increase in the total birth rate or fertility rate of the country than the total death rate
or mortality rate of the country. Population can also increase if the total emigration rate of the
country is higher than the total immigration rate of the country. This means that more people are
entering the country which in result increases the overall population of the country.

Economic development refers to the transition of a country from a low income economy to a high
income economy with respect to its increased population. Economic development includes all the
processes and policies through which a country makes its economic, political and social progress
and ensures well being of its people.

Uganda is a land-locked country occupying 241551 sq. km., 18% of which consists of open inland
waters and permanent wetlands. It is bordered by Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Uganda’s population has been doubling almost every 20 years: from
5 million in 1948 to 9.5 million in 1969; and from 12.6 million in 1980 to 24.2 million in 2002. The
mid 2007 population projection stood at 28.2 million; (2002 Census) of which 87 per cent live in
rural areas and 73 per cent are engaged in agriculture. With its population growing at the rate of 3.2
per cent per annum, Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, higher than
the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) average of 2.4 per cent. This is attributed to a high fertility rate, low
prevalence of family planning methods, young marriage age for women (18 years of age on
average), and the high influx of refugees.

Population growth leads to economic development in Uganda due to the following factors discussed
below:

Population increase has stimulated the nation’s economy. The rigorous population has created rising
demand for goods and services and has led to the development of both the informal and formal
sectors; there has an expansion in business sector and technological advancement to bridge the gap
between demand and supply of goods and services. This has resulted into many industries cropping
up in many areas of Uganda to provide the needed items. A case in point is Nalukolongo, Namanve
industrial park to mention a few in Kampala hence population leads to development.

Population growth has also been a valued asset in Uganda because it has created a huge and
abundant in the country, many Business and industries have come up to utilize this readily and
cheaply labour force and this in turn has provided them with more and better job facilities. On
addition to the above the cheap labour has created more room for the extra money gained by
proprietors to invest in technological research and development. On addition to that technological
improvements will provide and handle the extra demand for goods and services needed to serve the
rising population. This is because technological improvements will result in increased production
and increase in the overall demand of the country, thus resulting into an increase in the overall
output of a country increases the per capita income of the nation for example according to the
Uganda Human Development Report 2007, there was a considerable progress in real per capita
income of 2.7 per cent per annum over the period (2001-2005) and GDP of
US$ 334 in 2005, such increase in the per capita products has helped in
poverty reduction; from an income poverty of 56 per cent in 1992 to 31 per
cent in 2005 hence leading to economic development.

Increase in population growth also triggers economic development in that the increase in the
income of the employed people of the country leads to more savings leading more investments in
the economy thus fostering growth for instance in Uganda there has been a tremendous increase in
investment sector such as real estates, industries to mention a few.

However, though Population growth leads to development; Development also leads to population
growth as seen below:

Development leads to creation of employment opportunities in all aspects of life, for example
people get employed in industries, informal sector such business sector, industries to mention a few
get income of which they use to assess all their basic needs such food, shelter, medicine, clothes
made from industries and this leads to improvement in the standard of living hence resulting to a
long sustained life with more people surviving than dying prematurely in other words an increase in
the population.

Economic development leads to urbanization and this influences development process and
population change for instance the current rapid population growth in most urban centres has been
influenced by development in areas such good health facilities, social welfare, water and sanitation
facilities and employment opportunities in the urbanite areas which makes people to migrate from
rural to urban and hence increasing the population in such areas. A case in point is that there has
been an increase in the urban population from 1.6 million to 3.6 million(11.3% to 12.3%) between
1991 to 2002. The 2002 census put Kampala city population at 7,259 persons per sq km.

Development also leads to technological advancement, because of innovations, increase in

technology, acquisition of skills and knowledge; there has been introduction of machines, medicine,
medical facilities and equipments. These have helped in making life better for example medicines
such as polio vaccines, tetanus, among others. These have helped in improvement in the quality of
life that is say there has been an increase in life expectancy of people because people can access
medical care and this has enhanced fertility rates of women for instance according to According to
the recent Demographic and Health Survey (2006), the fertility rate for rural Ugandan women is 7.1
while for urban women is 4.4.

In a word therefore, Uganda has become one of the Africa’s fastest growing economies, primarily
due to the rise in population growth creating a positive effect on its long run economic growth.
Uganda is now ranked one of the top nations in terms of GDP in a developing country. In many
cases, economists are correct in saying that population growth leads to development and vice versa.
References:

Uganda Bureau of Statistics &ORC Macro, 2001. Uganda Demographic and Health Survey
2000/01.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics & ORC Macro, 2007. Uganda Demographic and Health Survey
2005/6. Kampala.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2002. Uganda National Household Survey (Labour Force Survey)

United Nations Development Programme, 2005. Uganda Human Development Report, 2005:
Linking Environment to Human Development. Kampala

Wikipedia.Org.EconomicDevelopment,Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_develop
ment (accessed April 21, 2010)

Word NetWeb. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu

ute to the economy. The writer gives a well explained picture of how the total population of a
country is divided into the working and non working class. The writer then mentions that level of
living is also linked with population growth. If population increases and the economy is developed,
then the level of living of the people of that country will tend to rise also. The writer also talks about
economic development saying that the relationship of population growth and economic
development is not the same in every country, but normally population growth leads to other factors
which help foster the economic growth of the country which may or may not be true for all the
countries.
Economic development refers to the transition of a country from a low income economy to a high
income economy with respect to its increased population. It entails all the processes and policies
through which a country goes to make its economic, political and social progress as well as ensuring
the well being of its people.