Population-Economy-Quality of Life Connections Essay Example

Quality of life considers the general well-being of people living within a society considering both the negative and positive features of life. Thus, there are influencing factors that caused the society to experiences both the negative and positive elements of quality of life. The economy of the country has been found as a significant factor that determines how well people and society exist. As the economy grow, the economic output increases leading to improved income of the people. As the per capita income increases, society is able to provide for itself. Hence the majority of the people can access basic needs following economic growth (Becker, Glaeser, & Murphy, 2009). However, there have been mixed reactions on how the change in the population impacts the quality of life of people in the country. Depending on the side of the argument and the state in perspective, population growth negatively and positively affects the economic growth of the country. In a situation where the population strains the economic resources, the economic growth is likely to slow down thus lowering the quality of life. The purpose of this report is to examine how the population influences economic growth and how this relationship contributes to the quality of life. The country's population that is composed of many young people tends to experience better economic growth hence improved quality of life.

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The economic development level tends to highly determine the birth and death rates at the different stages which dictate the quality of life that people live. During the low economic growth, the rate of births is relatively low as compared to the death rates. In this stage of weak economic growth, the economy of the country may not be able to facilitate the excellent health facilities to children. Similarly, the level of income among the parents is not enough to guarantee children the required medication against diseases (Becker, Glaeser, & Murphy, 2009). Thus, it evident that more death rates may be experienced which may significantly lower the population level. This is different in the increasing economic growth where the economy is doing well, and the government may have enough capital to spend on providing basic health for children. The economy as well can provide enough income to parents who will, in turn, ensure better health services.

Considering the population composition of Japan, Finland, and Spain, the three countries exhibit different economic growth that has played a significant role in the quality of life. The quality of life in these three countries can be defined by the incidences of the infant mortality rate and the birth rates experience. Since 1995 to 2015, much of the population in Japan has been leaning towards the old age of people above 65 years as evident from the percentage figures provided by the World Bank Group. Making a comparison, in 1995, the population of Japan composed of 18 percent of the people below 15 years a similar figure as that of people above 65 years (Easterlin, 2007). With the large population composed of young people and the age, the country's resources were strained since a lot of its Gross Domestic Product was spend on health provision both the elderly and the children. The condition explains Japan's high expenditure on health in 1995 when compared to 2015 when the population of the young people below the age of 15 years had significantly reduced. The trend was almost similar in Finland and Spain whose population composition was highly made up of the young people below 15 years in early years like 1995 (Yu, 2001). However, Spain continued to experience different trend where the number of young people continued to be high than that of the old people. The population trend in this country explains its continued high expenditure in the health sector by the state.

The economic levels of Japan, Finland and Spain best explain the changes in the rate of infant mortality in comparison to the birth rates experienced. When a country's much population is composed of children, the resources of the company tend to be strained as the country may commit much of its funds in providing health care and other services such as education (Lange, & Vollmer, 2017). Hence, the country may experience the stage one of the slow economic growth and even gets a time when the economy cannot guarantee the best health for children. This explains the declining rate of both infant mortality and the fertility rates experienced by the three countries moving forward from 1995 to 2015. As the resources were strained in 1995 leading to slow economic growth, Japan, Finland, and Spain could not guarantee standard health to their people (Easterlin, 2007). The outcome was the high levels of infant mortality experienced with the relatively high fertility rates as compared to the rest of the years. However, going forward, Japan and Finland continued to experience a low number of birthrates and thus reducing the population of the children. In this situation, any country will do well economically since the overdependence on the resources cuts. Though the trend was different from Spain, the country still realized improvements in the economic growth over the years that allowed the drastic drop in mortality rates hence improved quality of life.

When the population is majorly composed of the children, various approaches are adopted to ensure that these people meet their basic needs and future preparation takes care of many youths in the society. This needs to intervene with the government to assure better economic development that will facilitate the required resources for every individual in the future. Economic growth can take the form of foreign investment where the country aims to plow the profits of such an investment home. The education becomes the basic needs to ensure that society is composed of educated people and professionals who would live a quality life (Yu, 2001). Similarly, a high population, in this case, expresses the low economic growth as the country may spend much on funding education and hiring many teachers to attend to the vast student population. Taking a case of Japan, Finland, and Spain, it is evident that countries underwent a slow economy in 1995 due to the high young population. However, with the government intervention to fund education and ensure higher teacher-student relationship, these countries have been able to assure a better quality of life for the people (Lange, & Vollmer, 2017). For Spain, though the country's teacher-student ratio is going low despite the relatively high percentage of children than the elderly, the government intervention to fund education to ensure quality life is still high.

The urge to achieve quality life for the increased population has seen globalization set in and has been embraced by the three countries. Globalization allows countries to engage in free trade, opening up the international market, and improved the labor market. The result of it all has been economic development achievement and countries like Japan, Finland, and Spain have benefited in terms of facilitating employment opportunities for their citizens (Lange, & Vollmer, 2017). As the population of Japan and Finland of children continued to slow down, the decisions by these countries have seen the employment opportunities increase yearly with the intention of improving the living standards of the people. This is the reason the per capita income of Japan had to increase from 1995 to 2015 the similar scenario expressed by Finland and Spain. The countries level of earnings per person has gone up as many have been absorbed in different sectors. Economic development has allowed trade liberalizations, opened up the world market to allow citizens to engage in free business amidst the increasing population of adults who need to make a living.

In a populated country, many people are willing to work even under low costs to make a living for themselves and their family members. This explains the low labor costs in some countries though; the rate of output tends to increase allowing the economic growth within the state. Those countries that are highly populated tend to have many investors who come in to start businesses to utilize cheap labor. Ultimately, the manufacturing sector improves hence allowing more labor opportunities and the output as well tends to grow (Lange, & Vollmer, 2017). This explains the case of Japan, Finland, and Spain that have been realizing improved output over the years since 1995 as the countries move towards industrialized states where there are many manufactured goods. For instance, Japan had an economic output improve from 44% to 54% between 1995 and 2015, while Finland enhanced from 32% to 46%, as Spain enhanced from 34% to 52% over the same period. These improvements have been attributable to the efforts of the countries to ensure economic development for its population, globalization, and foreign investments.

The improved quality of life can be defined in terms of the energy spent by each household that has been increasing following economic growth. As the population grew, the government decides to take up the responsibility to improve the energy supply to boost the life of households. For instance, the energy per capita in Japan, Finland, and Spain have been increasing since 1995 to 2015 as their governments move to ensure the lives of people improve (Yu, 2001). However, there is a significant relationship between the populations in each of these countries the environment. This expresses that Finland and Spain have rushed to ensure there is little emission of harmful gases that pollute the environment. As Finland achieves fast economic development, technology is being used as a solution to handle a large number of adult populations.

Therefore, it is evident that the composition of the population plays a significant role in the economic changes in the country. During the increased economic growth, the state makes enough resources available for the people to meet their primary and secondary needs that facilitate their improved quality of life. However, in times when the economic growth is low, people tend to struggle to make their ends meet. A population that is majorly composed of children puts the countries to resource pressure as they put measures in place to ensure they meet the needs of this population in the future. This defines the high levels of expenditures in health sectors, education, and employment as were recorded in Japan, Finland, and Spain that was realized in 1995. However, as the population of the children continued to drop while increasing the adult population, dangers that led to economic slowness started to reduce as the expenditures low. Similarly, the rate of infant mortality and births decreased an indicator that people had begun living better lives than before.

References

Becker, G. S., Glaeser, E. L., & Murphy, K. M. (2009). Population and economic growth. American Economic Review, 89(2), 145-149.

Easterlin, R. A. (2007). Effects of population growth on the economic development of developing countries. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 369(1), 98-108.

Lange, S., & Vollmer, S. (2017). The effect of economic development on population health: a review of the empirical evidence. British medical bulletin, 121(1), 47-60.

Yu, W. (2001). The relationships between population and economy, and between population and education. Ren kou yan jiu= Renkou yanjiu, (2), 4-10.