Aims/objectives

By participating in the activities of this module, it is intended that the group members will be able to:

• Define the concept of population and population growth.
• Analyse the factors influencing population changes at village or community level, i.e., births, deaths and migrations.
• Evaluate in a practical way, the real situation in their community.

Basic concepts

• Population is the number of people in a community or specific group; e.g., world population, youth population, rural population, village population.
• Births, deaths and migration are the factors which cause increases or decreases in the population.
• Populations may be evaluated or compared by considering how quickly they are increasing or decreasing or by how many people there are in a standard area (usually a square mile or square kilometre).
• Populations are usually measured by means of a general counting, called a census.
• Over-population means that there are too many people in a given area for the available resources.