Population Growth and Economic Development

The Case of Mexico

Bibliographic Data

ID3406518
AuthorsAnsley J Coale (corresponding author)
Year1978
Volume56
Issue2
Pages415
Publication date1978-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20039860
PMID12261423
OpenAlexW72431692
LanguageEN
Citations received13

A review of events in Mexico since the publication in 1958 of Coale and Hoover's "Population Growth and Economic Development in Low Income Countries," in which they concluded that a low income country with high fertility would achieve better progress if it could reduce its fertility than if it did not do so. India and Mexico were the cases considered. Over the 20 years from 1955-75 the population of Mexico more than doubled, slightly exceeding Coale and Hoover's high projections. During that time Mexico saw substantial economic progress: a 72% increase in the proportion of primary school age children actually attending school; a 26% increase in literacy; an 89% increase in per capita income at constant prices; a 38% increase in the urban population; and a 27% rise in the average duration of life. These figures reveal the error of assuming that rapid population increase in a poor country leads inevitably to malnutrition, impoverishment, and social collapse, but also show that economic development does not automatically lead to a slowing of population growth. If Mexican fertility had fallen beginning in 1955, the population under 15 would have been most effected. The income per equivalent adult consumer might have been higher, the gains in school attendance and literacy might have covered a larger percentage of the population, and declining rather than increasing absolute numbers of persons might have been unaffected by the gains. Creation of employment opportunities for fewer persons entering the labor force would have been easier than for the large number of new entrants who will need work over the next 20 years

Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Family planning · Fertility · Geography · Literacy · Per capita · Per capita income · Population · Population growth · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Demography · Economic Growth and Productivity · Income, Poverty, and Inequality

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