Youthful Population

Youthful Population

A Youthful population is defined as a population with a higher percentage of young people. Many countries in the world have a youthful population, some of these include; Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Egypt and the Gambia. A youthful population can have both positive and negative effects and implications on different part of the country. For example; Employment, Economy and the countries demographics.
An increase of youthful population may be due to an increased accessibility or improvements in the countries healthcare. This will therefore decrease the infant mortality rate of the country which means that the survival rate of children increases. Other factors that may cause a youthful population are lack of education, lack of access to contraception, more access to food and water.
An example of a large youthful population is Uganda, Uganda’s population are 78% below the age of thirty. It has been predicted that the huge youthful population of Uganda can and will have a negative effect of the economy of the county. This is because the more children a woman has, the more expensive the healthcare is for the government. Therefore to tackle this huge cost, they have to raise taxes which means that the average person in Uganda will have a lower average income which can decrease the standard of life. The way that experts have decided to tackle this is by trying to transform this large number of youths into a productive work force to take advantage of the countries natural resources and land.
Other problems facing Uganda from their youthful population include, a shortage of space in schools and a lack of housing. These two factors could force people to live below the poverty line. In Uganda 52% are below 15 years old. This shows how there is a large demand for education and a lack of Teachers and staff that are needed to supply this demand. (Anon., 2013)
There will also be a greater pressure on the economically active as they will have more people to support, because of this they may not have much money left to spend on housing, comfort and other things which may increase the standard of living.
These problems are also faced by countries such as Gambia, Gambia is a tiny country situated in West Africa. 95% of Gambia’s population are Muslim, This makes it much harder for the country to spread the word about contraception as talking about sex is strictly taboo. Gambia has a TFR of 7 children. This means that each woman will have roughly 7 children in her lifetime. Each man may also have more than 1 wife so this could mean roughly 20-30 children per man in his lifetime. This can cause a massive economic burden on the average man in Gambia.
Youthful populations can have some very positive effects on a country, for example there will be a larger workforce so the country can become more efficient, and this can therefore help build the economy and increase the average standard of living. (http://www.studymode.com/essays/Causes-And-Effects-Of-Gambia's-Youthful-1609465.html)
To conclude, I believe that Youthful populations are bad for a country as it causes many problems although there are some positive effects.