South Asian Population
Emily A. + Brenda C. + Rhea S.
A Hard Knock Life
Around 170 billion people live in South Asia. In other words, that’s 20% of the world’s population living on just 3% of the world’s land. With a plentiful population projected to become even bigger, however, come very difficult problems for the seven countries of South Asia: India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. Limited food and water resources, along with overcrowding in urban areas, are serious problems that need solutions. There aren’t enough job opportunities to get South Asia’s population into work, resulting in low wages and deportment of people outside of cities, or even to the Middle East and Africa. Overall, South Asia’s economic growth is slowed down.
Some of South Asia’s children have malnutrition, living in poor environments and being raised to work without skills, training, and experience. Illiteracy rates are also rising because of low education funds. The population is also divided by language. There are several hundred languages in South Asia, and there are times the population can’t understand each other because of that.
The increasing number of cars in urban areas contributes to air pollution. In rural areas, people burn kerosene, wood, and animal dung to keep warm, unknowingly makes the air worse. There is even a brown cloud over the Indian Ocean. The greater demand of animal products lead to a larger cattle population and it leads to overgrazing. Water is also very polluted because of runoff from fertilizer, and the Ganges River is the most polluted.