Population Explosion

Saleem Qamar Butt

Since 1804, the global human population has increased from 1 billion to 8 billion due to medical advances and improved agricultural productivity. Annual world population growth peaked at 2.1% in 1968 and has since dropped to 1.1%. Population explosion refers to the rapid and unprecedented increase in the human population, especially in a short period. This phenomenon typically occurs when birth rates far exceed death rates, leading to a sharp rise in the number of people in a given area or globally. Furthermore, factors such as cultural and religious backgrounds, low levels of literacy among women, and inadequate family planning contribute to rapid population growth.

“Pakistan’s population in 2025 is estimated at 255.2 million, making it the fifth-most populous country in the world.”

In 1968, Paul R. Ehrlich published the highly influential book The Population Bomb, which warned of a future filled with starvation and environmental disasters directly associated with overpopulation. The phenomenal increase in global and regional populations has put immense strain on the ecosystem. Overpopulation is causing food and water shortages, the emission of poisonous gases damaging the ozone layer and causing global warming, the unbearable melting of glaciers, avalanches, excessive evaporation, devastating rains, storms, construction on river and natural water channel beds with consequent flash floods, urban flooding, rising sea levels, deforestation, wildfires, and massive landslides. These are now both global and local phenomena, as Nature Strikes Back (24 August 2025) to restore the natural ecosystem.

According to Worldometer and World Population Review, Pakistan’s population in 2025 is estimated at 255.2 million, almost a 2% increase from 2024, making it the fifth-most populous country in the world. The World Bank reports that 44.7% of Pakistan’s population lives below the poverty line (equivalent to approximately 107 million people) and estimates that more than 26 million children aged 5–16 are out of school. With one of the highest population growth rates, Pakistan is grappling with countless challenges. Human resources are under strain, national resources are stretched thin, and the country remains vulnerable to extremism and climate change shocks. In my column Shrinking Resources (October 2022), a number of factors and challenges were highlighted relating to overpopulation vis-à-vis depleting resources. Yet, little seems to have been done by successive governments to control the already exploding bomb of unbridled population growth.

For the affluent elite and ruling class, a larger population simply means more hungry, deprived, and dependent masses coerced into serving as cheap labour and votes. Pakistan’s water crisis is explained mainly by rapid population growth, compounded by climate change (floods and droughts), the lack of dams, the absence of “hydro-geological treasure” utilisation from riverbeds, poor watershed management, and widespread water pollution. In violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, India has demonstrated the capability to either turn Pakistan into a desert and make it suffer drought or inundate it at will; the economic and security repercussions are an existential threat. Without water security, food and energy security also become impossible. Out of Pakistan’s total land area of 79.6 million hectares, in 2025, only 22.1 million hectares are cultivated. Needless to say, if arable land is managed effectively with modern farming technology and urgently needed land reforms, the country could free itself from food insecurity as well as from multiple mafias. This must be the government’s highest priority, beginning with effective control of the exploding population.

“Without water security, food and energy security also become impossible.”

Pakistan’s GDP is projected to exceed $ 400 billion in 2025, with total public debt reaching a record Rs 76 trillion (approximately $273 billion), representing about 80% of GDP. Excessive foreign borrowing has mired the country in a debt-servicing trap; consequently, very little remains for the government to spend on improving the human development index (health, education, and living standards).

The human population has more than doubled over the past 50 years and is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. In 1947, Pakistan’s population was 32.5 million; in 2025, it had risen to 255 million, stretching resources and infrastructure to breaking point. Methods to control population growth include wider access to contraception, women’s empowerment, essential education, government incentives to promote family planning, and equitable wealth redistribution.

“The affluent elite see a larger population as cheap labour and votes, not as a development challenge.”

With Pakistan’s economy hanging by the fragile, dictatorial thread provided by the IMF, how can any government ignore the inevitability of effective population control and professional resource management? Pakistan’s population density is approximately 331 people per square kilometre in 2025, compared to a world average of about 60. The country must control its population growth and invest in improving its human capital through greater public and private sector investment, rather than raising overnight billionaires through cartels creating illegal and unethical housing societies on farmland, riverbeds, hills, and forest land.

It is universally recognised that human dignity, decency, and democracy cannot survive overpopulation. As more and more people are added to the world, the value of life not only declines, but it also disappears.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in The Nation on September 2, 2025.

The writer is a retired senior army officer with experience in international relations, military diplomacy and analysis of geopolitical and strategic security issues.