POPULATION IN A COUNTRY

By population, we mean the total number of people living in a particular place at a particular time.

Source

A country could have an optimum population, it could be under populated and it could be over populated.
The concepts as they apply to a country could be illustrated with the aid of the table below.

[Pictures taken by me]

In the above table, the fixed factor (land) could be regarded as a hypothetical country X with fixed geographical area of 10,000 Km 2 with growing population as shown in the above table. Looking at the table closely, one would see that the average output(i.e output per head of the population) was highest when the population of the country was three million.

At this level of population, the country could be said to have optimum population which is three million. Beyond this point, the average output falls making the inhabitants of the country worse off. So at the level where the population is four million, the country is said to be over populated, hence there is a fall in the average output.

And just a step before getting to the optimum level of population i.e at a level where the population was less than three million, say when the population was two million, the country was under- populated.

Each of these concepts will now be explained briefly.

UNDER POPULATION

By under population, we mean that level of population where the average output of the population is not maximized. From the above table, any level of population that is below three million does not give the maximum average output.

At that level, the country is said to be under populated because if the population is increased further, the inhabitants of the country would be better off since the average output would increase.

** OPTIMUM POPULATION**

Optimum population could be defined as the level of population at which the average output is at a maximum.
At this level, the welfare of the inhabitants of the country in question is at a maximum.

On the above table, the optimum population was reached when the country attained a population level of three million people. Any point beyond that level, the inhabitants will be worse- off since there will be a fall in the average output, hence a fall in the welfare of the inhabitants. This would occur when the country is over- populated.

OVER POPULATION

A country is said to be over populated when it contains more than the number of people it can adequately provide for. When a country is over populated, the average output and hence the income per capital or average welfare of the inhabitants falls below the maximum level.

From the above table, over population occurs at a level when the population exceeds three million people because that is the level of population at which average output or income per capital is highest.

Any point beyond that level results in over population.