Demography and environment

Abstract

The twentieth century has been characterised by three important phenomena that are closely interrelated, namely: the explosive growth of the world population, massive movements of populations into cities; (urbanisation) and extensive technological development. These three phenomena together have been associated with extensive damage and generalised degradation of the environment. Another related important phenomenon has been the change in the age structure of population and increasing world wide tendency to aging of populations, more evident in developed industrial countries.