Population and Overcrowding

Africa is the world's poorest continent, and it also has the world's fastest-growing population. Many observers have concluded that overpopulation is a root cause of Africa's poverty, and that if the continent is ever to emerge from underdevelopment its rapid population growth will have to be slowed. This book examines those assertions, offering a wealth of statistical and other evidence to suggest that the link between African poverty and the size of Africa's population is by no means definitive. The book also examines the important demographic trends-such as rapid urbanization, elevated mortality rates from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and continued high fertility-that will help shape African societies in the decades to come.