Problems Created by the opulatton Explosion
This sudden increase in the population of the developing countries has come at a difficult time. Even if their population had not grown so fast they would have been facing a desperate struggle to bring the standard of living of their people up to the point at which there was enough food, housing, education, medical care and employment for everyone to have a reasonable life.The poor countries are having to run faster and faster in their economic activity in order to stay in the same place, and the gap in wealth between rich and poor countries grows wider every year.
The most pressing problem created by the rapid increase in population is a shortage of food. More mouths have to be fed every year and yet a high proportion of the existing population are not getting enough of the right kind of food. Over the past two years the total amount of food has decreased, and of course the total amount of food per person has decreased even more sharply.
More and more of the babies born in developing countries have been surviving infancy, and now nearly half the people living in those countries are under the age of 15. The adults have to work harder than ever to provide for the needs of the children,who cannot contribute to the economy until they are older. There is a shortage of schools and teachers, and there are not enough hospitals, doctors and nurses. Farming land is becoming scarce,so country people are moving to the towns and cities in the hope of finding a better standard of living. But the cities have not been able to provide housing, and the newcomers live in crowded slums.Finally, there are too few jobs, and unemployment leads to further poverty.
人口爆炸帶來的問題
開發中國家的人口驟增在困難的時刻發生。即使其人口沒有如此迅速地成長，它們也一直面臨著一場極其嚴峻的鬥爭：為了把人民的生活提高到一個像樣的水準，達到人人能有飯吃，有房住，能享受教育、醫療和就業機會，就要進行艱巨的努力。貧窮的國家為了保持地位不下降，在經濟上不得不加快速度急起直追，因為貧窮的國家和富裕的國家在財富上的差距一年比一年大。
人口猛增造成的最緊迫的問題是食品短缺。每年有更多的人口需要養活，而現有人口中的很大一部分還沒有得到足夠的像樣的食物。在過去兩年中，糧食總量在下降，不用說，人均食物消耗量就下降得更多了。
開發中國家越來越多的嬰兒幸存下來了，現在，生活在這些國家的人口有將近一半不滿15歲。這種年齡的孩子要長大一些才能為經濟出力。為了撫養孩子，成年人被迫比過去任何時候都更加辛苦地工作。學校缺少，教師不足，醫院、醫生和護士也都不夠。 由于可耕地越來越少，鄉下人不斷流向城鎮，希望過上好一點的生活。可是，城市卻難以提供住房，新來的鄉下人隻好住在擁擠的貧民區。最後，工作機會太少，失業將會導致嚴重的貧困。