POPULATION CHALLENGES

          UK has a population of 62 348 447, and a total area of 243 610 km2, giving it a population density of 255 people per km2. This is a very dense population, and will soon become very overwhelming. High population density means many problems. For example, there won't be enough resources for the population, with very high demand on certain resources. The large population also means many large cities that are replacing the farmlands used for agriculture, which used to be a large part of the economy. At the moment, there is a large amount of middle aged population, which will soon become a very large dependency load, because they will also have a large amount of children, on top of the already large population of children. The slide show of the population pyramids for the UK from 2000 to 2050 show the population getting larger and moving upward. This means the population is going to continue to grow, yet the total area to support these people will remain the same. The movement of the population upwards shows a growing elderly population, which means a large dependency. In a way, it is a vicious circle because the large amount of working class will soon become elderly, and the large amount of children will become working class, who will produce more children. Evidently, the population growth must be slowed down, but this is hard because of the dependency load needing a working class to support them. (U.S. Census Bureau)