New Paper: “Demography is not Destiny: The Faulty Link Between Population and Development”

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future has published a new paper in its Issues in Brief series. The paper, titled “Demography is not Destiny: The Faulty Link Between Population and Development,” was written by Kristen Carey, a PhD candidate in the department of history and a 2018 Pardee Center Graduate Summer Fellow.

Some demographers have begun to argue that world population could peak in the next couple decades, with unprecedented global population decline in the second half of the century. It is widely assumed that fewer people on the planet would lead to many positive environmental, economic, and social outcomes. In this Issues in Brief, Carey challenges the perceived link between population and development, and provides a critique of the evidence that governments or international organizations are even capable of implementing effective demographic policy interventions. She argues that scholars and policymakers must embrace a “story of chaos” rather than pre-determining what various demographic trajectories would mean for development, and prioritize targeted studies that are smaller in scope to achieve incremental improvements in development projects.

Click here to download the PDF. Hard copies are free and can be requested by sending an email to pardee@bu.edu.