Population and poverty in the developing world: a new look

Rachel Nugent, Center for Global Development
Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global Development

Population is tightly linked to poverty in a complicated relationship that changes over time and across countries. Slower population growth is necessary, but not sufficient, for poverty to drop. The nature of both population concerns and poverty in developing countries have undergone substantial evolution in the past quarter century. This paper examines the association, the causal relationship, and the prospects for population and poverty conditions in poor countries.