ABSTRACT
The growing world population has, for a long time, been a public health concern in that the size of the earth’s population is an important determinant of its condition and the condition of the individuals who populate it.3 Understanding of the relationship between population density and health has evolved as sociologists have questioned scientific and mathematical models of population growth. Early studies equated increasing populations with food, water and fuel over-consumption,4 and considered over-population as a barrier to development.5 By the time of the second UN International Conference on Population6 in 1984, it was accepted that population growth and economic growth were not mutually exclusive, and the greater concern was the effect of over-population on the world’s environment. The 1992 Earth Summit7 introduced consideration of sustainable development as a measure of population feasibility and at the third UN Conference on Population and Development in 1994,8 there was recognition that relationships between population size, socio-economic development, environmental harm, health and women’s reproductive rights
1 Announced by the United Nations Population Fund, reported on BBC News, 12 October 1999.
